KENDRAPARA: During the day, their gaze measures the limits of Yaas’ destruction around them. In the night, they stare at endless darkness. In seaside villages of Kendrapara, the post-cyclone story is that of utter despair.
Three days after Yaas ravaged the coastal district, villages of Rajnagar block are still without electricity due to extensive damage to power infrastructure.
Uprooted trees and snapped power cables are telltale signs of destruction while hundreds complain of not receiving any relief.
Sudarshan Rout of Bagapatia and Bhikari Mandal of Debendranarayanpur feel hopeless but expect the administration lives up to its promise of restoring power supply soon.
It is during these tough times, non-availability of kerosene has added to their misery and villagers resort to candles to go about their daily business, lamented Sita Behera of Talachua village.
After heavy downpour triggered by the cyclone led to a flood-like situation with rivers in spate in Rajkanika and Aul blocks, Covid norms went for a toss as villagers were moved to cyclone shelters.
“We were kept in a make-shift tent on the river embankment with twelve others where it wasn’t possible to maintain social distancing,” said Basanti Das of Namatara village under Rajkanika block.
With hundreds of homes destroyed and people huddled in large numbers in cyclone shelters, non-availability of safe drinking water is another problem for most villagers.
“We have lost everything including our livestock and other belongings and now, getting safe drinking water is a task with submerged tubewells due to water-logging,” said 68-year-old Basanti Das, a native of Namatara village under Rajkanika block.
Meanwhile, a 110-metre-long bamboo bridge over Kharasrota river, catering to Padanipala, Sasana, Kharakhara, Kalamodasasan and Lenkapada, collapsed at Daitaripur village under Aul block on Friday night due to gushing flood water, cutting off around 10 villages from mainland.
Worried villagers now seek an alternative route for communication.