KOCHI: The Navy and the Coast Guard continued search and rescue operations for the eighth consecutive day on Thursday, saving fishermen stranded at sea and delivering disaster relief material to people hit by cyclone Ockhi.Coast Guard ship Vaibhav recovered two bodies about 100 nautical miles (182.5 km) off the Alappuzha coast and handed them over to the victims’ relatives in Vizhinjam.
While the Coast Guard deployed 12 ships and two types of aircraft - Dornier planes and Chetak helicopters - for the search operations, the Navy deployed nine ships and four types of aircraft - P-8I surveillance planes, Dorniers, Sea Kings helicopters and Dhruv ALH choppers. INS Jamuna provided fresh water at Kavaratti even as work is in progress to repair the damaged desalination plant. The ship will continue delivering fresh water to the island for the next five days.
INS Sharda reached Minicoy on Thursday morning with relief material, including fresh water, medicine, food, clothes and blankets. Though the ship carried essentials such as emergency lights, petrol, portable power generators, UPS and rechargeable torches, they could not be delivered due to the non-availability of a barge from Minicoy. It will be delivered on Friday, said Navy sources.