:
Cuddalore
Date line 08/01/2012
Thane was
announced well in time. But nobody
thought it would be of such a magnitude creating havoc in the life of so many people. Unlike
the tsunami of 2006 loss of life was negligible. The damage to infrastructure
–power , water supply and communication systems, crops, poultry was immense.
The power supply
was cut on the night of 29th Dec as a precautionary measure.It failed when the
cyclone struck in the early hours of 30thJan 2012.It was restored only today 8th Jan by 6 pm in
Cuddalore. The power supply to rural areas and to agricultural pump sets is yet
to be restored. The cyclone did a heavy damage to Cuddalore district and Pondicherry
In major parts of Cuddalore power is yet to be
restored. We were literally in dark as cell phones could not be charged and
many cell towers did not function after the cyclone. Only BSNL cells worked
fairly well despite their main tower in the town falling on the fateful day.
The towers were powered by generator. Power was given to the one of the main
roads after 6 days. Now every day they are setting right one after other. Even
today in my street only 2 houses are powered and the rest are in dark as they are
served by another transformer. People
suffered as there was no water supply from 30th till about yesterday. Some
thing was done by water tanker lorries here and there on some days which could
not meet all the needs of all the people. We had to here in generator to run
the motor to lift water. Generators were in demand and we had to pay more and
use influence to get one. Since I had a bigger tank and as it was filled on
29th we could manage for the first 5 days and then got the generator.
Milk was sold
for as high as Rs 100 a litre on 30th.It was in short supply in the first 4 or
5 days. Now it is more or less normal. The condition the rural areas is still
worse. No water supply and no power supply. Agricultural pump sets can not be
run for another one month at least .Kerosene was not available and it was also
sold for up to Rs 100 per litre. Then it was not available as all had
to use it for lighting. All essential things like candles, rava, maida etc were
charged exorbitantly on 30th and 31st. Then it was out of stock as
roads were blocked by fallen trees.
In short it was a night mare.
In short it was a night mare.
I took some
photographs of fallen/broken trees on 30th Dec. But due water drop falling on
the camera it has been short circuited and I can hope to see and share the
photos only after taking to the Sony service centre.
The Government
has announced relief and it has not reached every body as there is no
scientific method to ensure that it reached all the affected people. The pity
is what is happening in the district is known to all others and not the
residents in the district as there is no power in most of the areas till now.
Cable TV has failed as many dishes have been damaged.
The worst was
what happened to my Sony digital camera. It was damaged when I attempted to
take a photograph of the fallen dish antenna using flash. The technician says
it can not be repaired as the circuit board has been damaged
It is a mad mad
world and it is a sad sad story. I will stop here as I am afraid you may start crying!
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