CANACONA
Several houses, tourism structures and electricity poles were damaged while services were disrupted and trees got uprooted in several parts of Canacona, as Cyclone Tauktae wreaked havoc in Canacona on Saturday night and the entire Sunday, while restoration work was hampered throughout Monday.
According to Canacona Mamlatdar Vimod Dalal, many houses were damaged as trees came crashing down or cyclonic winds blew the rooftops and about 12 hectares of horticulture crops also destroyed due to the cyclone.
Dy Speaker and Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes visited several affected areas in the taluka to take stock of the damage caused by the cyclone.
The entire Canacona coastline bore maximum brunt of the cyclone, as several tourism structures were destroyed by strong waves, strong winds, sand erosion and uprooted trees.
The cyclone ripped through everything in its way, uprooting trees and rooftops, snapping electricity alignments and damaging electricity poles.
According to electricity officials, 14 High Tension (HT) poles and 31 Low Tension (LT) poles broke into pieces, leaving residents with no power supply for two nights. Electricity department personnel were working round the clock to restore power supply which was disrupted since Saturday night.
“The losses just to restore the damaged poles are estimated at over Rs 52 lakh. But losses to other electrical equipment could be much more,” said Canacona Assistant Engineer (Maintenance) Sanjay Gaonkar,
He along with JE (Maintenance) Amrut Gawde and their teams were struggling to carry out restoration of electrical alignments. Some feeders were restored on Monday evening while a few more were expected to be restored Monday night and others would be taken up only on Tuesday.
Fire Services personal were also on their toes since Sunday night and by Monday evening, had attended to about 35 calls, mostly pertaining to clearing trees on several roads in the taluka.
“Around 20-25 calls, mostly pertaining to trees having fallen on houses, are yet to be attended, and some of these calls will be attended to only on Tuesday, as the fire services has given preference to restoration of services and providing emergency services,” informed a fire service source.
