Power outages hit coastal towns as Cyclone Laila slams into southeastern India

Cyclone Laila hits southeastern India

HYDERABAD, India — A powerful cyclone slammed into southeastern India on Thursday, toppling power lines, damaging electrical installations and plunging a large swath of coastal Andhra Pradesh state into darkness.

Waves as high as 9 feet (3 meters) lashed the coast, and torrential rain fell in coastal districts, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, although heavy rains and strong winds in the run-up to the cyclone killed at least 15 people over the past 24 hours, officials said.

The cyclone, packing strong winds of 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour and heavy rain, hit the coastal town of Bapatla, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Hyderabad, the state capital.

State welfare agencies evacuated more than 50,000 people from low-lying villages as it braced for its worst storm in 14 years. They were put up in temporary shelters in schools and government buildings, said state revenue minister Dharmana Prasad Rao.

At least 55 fishermen were reported missing, although officials ordered fishing vessels to stay in port.

“We are making all-out efforts to prevent the loss of human lives and to minimize damage to public and private property,” Rosaiah told reporters.

Even before the cyclone hit, some parts of the state had been hit by up to 1 foot (32 centimeters) of rain, officials said.

“We are fully geared to face this natural calamity,” he said before the cyclone hit.

The state government set up control rooms in the nine coastal districts to coordinate any rescue missions, and helicopters and buses were on standby to evacuate more areas and deliver relief supplies, he said.

Strong winds uprooted trees, power lines and billboards, blocking roads in many places. Nearly a dozen towns and more than 1,400 villages in six districts were hit by power outages, state officials said.

Authorities on Wednesday decided to open 120 relief camps in Machlipatanam, a town near the cyclone landfall point, said Piyush Kumar, the district administrator.

Kumar said people were being moved to high ground from 83 villages in the area, about 215 miles (350 kilometers) east of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.

More than 10,000 people died when Andhra Pradesh was struck by its worst cyclone in 1977.