A view of the damaged airport after Cyclone Hudhud in Visakhapatnam on Monday. (Press Trust of India)
Along with power and phone lines, the Visakhapatnam airport is also out of service. Sunday's 200kmph winds of Cyclone Hudhud has virtually blown off its roof and wreaked havoc inside.
The airport had been shut down on Saturday in view of the coming cyclone. But now, it is shut for repairs and it would be a while before a plane can take off from there.
For passengers, it means a long journey to Rajahmundry - the "nearest" airport, which is over 190 km away - or Vijayawada, over 350 km away.
Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Atul Singh said it will take at least "two to three days" before the airport can be restored. There is a silver lining though - "The runway is okay, and the air traffic control suffered minimum damage," Mr Singh said.
But for the hapless passengers, all this have been a nightmare. With cellphone services unavailable, most of them reached the airport, hoping to skip the battered city for a few days.
"We were issued tickets and we had no information about the situation here,'' said one of the passengers who had turned up at the airport.
But despite the authorities' optimism, it would be difficult to get the airport up and running unless its restoration is taken up on a war footing. And that could be a tall order given the situation in the rest of the city.
Visakhapatnam was visibly battered this morning - its roads blocked with fallen trees, electric poles and statues, and its buildings damaged. There were long queues at shops and petrol pumps were practically mobbed.