Fani affected 1.5 crore people in 14 Odisha districts

The Odisha government on Friday claimed that cyclone Fani affected more than 1.5 crore people in 14 out of 30 revenue districts in the state. The death toll stood at 41.

According to the latest survey report released to the media by the office of special relief commissioner(SRC), Bishnupada Sethi, a total number of 16, 659 villages and 52 urban local bodies have been hit by the cyclone in the fourteen affected districts. Five lakh eight thousand houses have also been damaged.

Of the 41 human casualties, maximum 21 have been reported from worst-affected Puri district followed Cuttack 5, Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur four each and Kendrapara three. The extremely severe cyclone had its landfall in the temple town of Puri in Puri district. A total of 1031 health facilities besides 5244 primary school and 1547 secondary school buildings have also been damaged by the calamity in the 14 districts.

The report further said that the state government had evacuated 14 lakh 70 thousand 197 people before and after the cyclone struck the state. All of them had been sheltered in safer places.