Vizianagaram, a ghost city

• Plight of people worse than that in Vizag
• No water, no electricity and no money in the ATMs
• It will take at least one week to restore power supply
• Power transformers are blown over, except a few; Replacement will take time
• Relief and restoration work concentrated on Vizag
• Vegetables and other essential items are in scarce
• Schools will remain closed until normality returns

Vizianagaram: As night falls, candles and lanterns come as relief. It will take at least a week to limp into even nascent stage of recovery, said officials who did not want to be named, as they walked through a town that was completely devastated by the cyclone. Hoardings and signposts, visibly mangled, sprawled in the middle of roads. Huge trees that once reached for the sky were whipped horizontal with their branches forming cordons across main roads. The trees across the bund of the Pedda Cheruvu have been uprooted and have blocked the main road of the city. Vizianagaram, the hub of commerce and education -- not just for Andhra Pradesh, but for the neighbouring state Odisha -- took the hardest beating.

“It has been three days, yet there isn’t even a sigh of relief,” says Tirumala Rao, a doctor and a resident of Totapalem. Roadways are only partially restored and all the arterial roads completely in a shambles. There is no electricity and communication systems at all time low. “The city has never seen such destruction,” said Ashok, engineer, R&B, adding the winds were so strong that day, they thought everything would collapse."

Schools and other educational institutions are closed. They will remain closed until normalcy returns. Until Wednesday evening many colonies were water logged, as the culverts were damaged. “For the past three days we are locked in our houses, no water, no supplies, nothing, we couldn’t even reach the main road as our colony was water- logged. We looked for help from the authorities but nothing came. It was only after sun came out on Wednesday that water started receding and roads became accessible,” informed Bhaskara Rao, a realtor and resident of Padmavati Nagar. The once picturesque colony is now in a shambles, the green cover is torn apart and the residents had to help each other out as the uprooted trees blocked the doors trapping them in their own homes. Groceries and essential supplies can be accessed with a bit difficulty. Drinking water is a problem, if there are no bore wells and one has to shell out as much as Rs 300 for a 20-litre water can. Fleecing has already begun and commodities are being sold at a premium price.

Electricity is a million dollar question for this city as many transformers were swept away. “My line of duty is at Gayatri Nagar and I have inspected the colony on Monday. To my horror out of six transformers only one is intact, I couldn’t even trace the remains of the other transformers. People mobbed me, demanding and pleading for power but what can I do? I am as helpless as they are. If the power gets restored within a week it would be a miracle,” said, Appanna, a lineman with the electricity department.

This adversity, however, has opened new business opportunities for those who are keen to earn quick buck. Generator recharge vans have huge demand in the city. There are a couple of vans running from home to home promising to fill their overhead tanks for Rs 1,000 and recharge inverters for an additional Rs 500 and the hapless citizens are shelling out.

“Thank god, those generator recharge vans have come. We could fill our overhead tank and recharge the inverter. They have charged Rs 1,500 for a 20-minute-job, a hefty sum but what else can be done? The word around here is that normalcy cannot be restored until a week. Water is fine, electricity we can manage, but what about supplies? Now, that no ATMs are working,” rues Jayasree, a retired government employee.