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Vijayawada: As many as 35,114 persons living along the sea coast and in low-lying areas have been evacuated as part of relief measures initiated due to severe cyclonic storm Montha in Kakinada district.District collector Shan Mohan in a statement issued on Tuesday stated that under the influence of Montha, 41,729 people living in 12 mandals , 68 villages and five urban habitations were getting affected and of them, 35,114 persons were shifted to rehabilitation centres so far and they were being provided with food, potable water and basic amenities. He said that they were ready to set up 401 rehabilitation centres and of them, they had opened 81 centres so far and evacuated the people living in huts and vulnerable areas and added that they had distributed 45,700 food packets, 2,463 water cans, supplied potable water through 24 tankers and also 1.50 lakh litres of milk.The collector said that they were running 259 medical camps in cyclone hit areas to provide emergency healthcare and arranged 185 doctors, 1,710 health staff, 108 ambulances-23, 104 mobile medical vans-35 and 102 vehicles-22 besides keeping 7,150 anti-rabies vaccine, 1,773 anti-snake venom doses and 2.50 lakh chlorine doses. He said that as part of precautionary measures, 95 pregnant women, 1,400 lactating women and were shifted to 52 hospitals to keep them under medical care. The collector stated that several boats which ventured into the sea for fishing were brought back to the shore and advised the fishermen to secure 4,573 boats in the Upputeru and creek.As part of relief measures, two NDRF teams and one SDRF team were kept ready to extend their services and 214 master swimmers and 100 persons and 60 boats were also kept ready for use in addition to arranging helipads at Kakinada Urban, Pitapuram and Tallarevu.The collector ruled out any major untoward incidents except for issues of falling of trees and uprooting of a few electric poles and causing damage to power transmission lines and transformers which were restored on a war-footing manner and called upon the people not to panic and advised them to call at the. Control room numbers to inform about their problems.
