Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) - Cyclone Phailin has killed at least 30 people and left more than 100,000 homeless in Orissa. Half a million hectares of farmland have also been damaged with 15 per cent of the rice crop lost. About 14,500 villages and 39 cities have been badly hit with as many as 300,000 houses destroyed, this according to Caritas India, the Catholic association involved in rescue and recovery operations along with the central and local governments.
According to government figures, the cyclone was the worst to hit the Indian state in the last 14 years. Phailin (sapphire in Thai) made landfall on the Orissa coast last Saturday, hitting ground at a speed of 250 km/h, and then moved onto Andhra Pradesh.
The villages along the Orissa coast sustained the most damages. According to Caritas, the main priority now is providing drinking water to survivors to prevent the development and spread of disease.
To help refugees and evacuees, Orissa authorities set up 1,073 relief camps. Before the cyclone struck, they also moved 873,000 people to safety. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, the authorities established 135 camps and asked 129,000 people to leave their homes.
Overall, these precautions limited the number of victims. Almost all those who died lost their life because of uprooted trees, and not collapsed homes.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced compensation worth 200,000 rupees (US$ 3,250) per family of each person killed, and 50,000 rupees (US$ 800) for the seriously injured.