Cyclone Laila hits Andhra coast, wreaks havoc
Hyderabad/New Delhi: Cyclonic storm Laila, accompanied by heavy rains, high storm surges and winds with speed of 125 km per hour, hit southern part of Andhra Pradesh coast on Thursday afternoon. After changing its course repeatedly in the Bay of Bengal during the last three days, the cyclone on Thursday afternoon crossed the Andhra coast, about 50 km from Bapatla, a town in southern coastal district of Guntur.
After the landfall, the cyclone re-emerged in northern Bay of Bengal and was heading towards Balasore in Orissa. Weather officials said the course of Laila was not unusual as there were precedents of cyclones re-emerging on sea after landfall. "We are still assessing the damages caused by the cyclone in coastal Andhra," a top official in the disaster management department said in Hyderabad.
Text: IANS
Images: PTI, AFP, AP
Image: Fishermen struggle to pack their nets on a beach in Vishakhapatnam on May 20, 2010, in the path of Cyclone Laila. A severe cyclone packing winds of 110 kilometres an hour closed in on India's southeast coast as tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes fearing major storm damage.
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