Cyclone Hudhud victims clash for relief material in Vizag as government struggles to restore power, water supply

 The people of Kotha Jalaripeta, Relliveedi and nearby areas have not received any power or water supply since Saturday evening. However, PTI quoted Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as saying that the shortage of essential commodities was an “artificial scarcity”. “By the evening, I want to bring normalcy. By tomorrow morning, everybody should have all essential commodities, including milk, water, everything,” he said.
ATMs also ran out of cash and people waited for hours outside fuel outlets which functioned intermittently, depending on whether they had enough diesel, limiting sale to just two litres per person.“The morning after the cyclone, the weather cleared and it was sunny. Why didn’t the government start restoration work immediately? Why are trees lying on the road since Monday morning? The NDRF and other relief teams are sitting idle outside the District Collector’s office for hours because they have no orders to go somewhere and help in restoration work,” said Dr C Ramakanth of Andhra University.At the King George Hospital, the biggest government hospital in the region, the back-up generator stopped working on Monday night due to lack of diesel. The neo-natal department was worst hit as parents were forced to take away premature babies and those needing to be kept in incubators.

“We tried to get diesel for the generators but it was not available. We had to shut down many wards and relatives of patients decided to take them away,’’ said an official. The state government is struggling to restore power supply, but it may still take another 24 hours.

“These days, almost all hospitals, business establishments, banks, ATMs and hotels have generators for back-up power… What I don’t understand is that despite the warnings of a severe cyclone, no arrangements were made to make stocks of diesel and petrol available. We stored water and diesel to last for two days, but how can we go on beyond two days,’’ said an official at the Seven Hills Hospital.

While the local MP is BJP’s K Hari Babu, the district is dominated by TDP MLAs. In fact, most of the relief trucks were sent by TDP MLAs.