The town has turned into the second-largest zone of disaster.
The concrete walls of a petrol pump lie in a collapsed heap. Hoardings and signposts, visibly mangled, are sprawled in the middle of a road. Colossal trees that once reached for the sky have been whipped horizontal, their branches forming cordons across main roads. (
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Vizianagaram is a big centre for commerce and education - not just for Andhra Pradesh, but for neighbouring Odisha. On Sunday, it could offer little resistance to the insidious winds that hit with manic force, turning the town into the second-largest zone of disaster in Andhra Pradesh. Visakhapatnam, the port city located just 52 kms north-east, took the hardest beating. (
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Ashok, an engineer with the town's Road Department, says the city has never seen such destruction. "The winds were so strong that day, we thought everything would collapse," he says.
Most of the town remains without power. Many petrol pumps are closed. Luckily, groceries and essential supplies are not too tough to access at neighbourhood stores, many of which have re-opened.
As night falls, candles and lanterns try to offer some relief. It will take at least a week to limp into even nascent recovery, said officials who did not want to be named as they walked through a town that was brutally reshuffled by a cyclone named Hudhud.