ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Toll in Orissa cyclone estimated at 5,000

About 5,000 people are feared killed in the century's worst cyclone that battered the Orissa coast for over 48 hours since Friday.

"The toll may reach anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 as many villages in the coastal areas have been washed away by tidal waves up to 40 feet high," said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

The armed forces -- the army, the air force and the navy -- have launched a massive rescue-and-relief operation to restore normalcy.

But the official said the state government was yet to establish contact with the four districts that were worst affected, including Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.

"We sent some officials to the headquarters of the four districts, but they were forced to retreat," he said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang, who made an aerial survey of the worst-affected areas, said the devastation was beyond description. "We could see nothing but water. Everything is under water," they reported.

Gandhi demanded that the super cyclone be described as a national calamity of rare severity.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government has sent a 120-member crack squad to clear the roads and maintain law-and-order on the national highways passing through the state. There were several incidents of looting of food and other relief materials from trucks in different parts of the state.

The Andhra Pradesh chief secretary and the director general of police have also arrived in Bhubaneswar to co-ordinate rescue and relief operations with Orissa government officials.

UNI

RELATED REPORTS:

• Centre to seek foreign aid for victims
  
• Storm weakens, but it's still raining heavily
  

Tell us what you think of this report