Battered by the devastating effects of Hudhud, Vizagites woke up to a scene they would have never imagined. Even as people struggled to cope up with the disastrous cyclonic effect on Monday, several helping hands came forward to offer support. Many were seen guiding vehicles held up at roads cut off due to fallen electric poles and trees. It was difficult to navigate through the narrow lanes in residential colonies like Seethammadhara, TPT Colony and HB Colony from where residents tried to make their way to shops, ATMs and petrol pumps. People formed small groups and volunteered to guide the traffic through the cleared routes.
While the city plunged into darkness from Saturday night, a few who had generator and inverter backup took up the responsibility to provide information to worried relatives of Vizagites through social networking sites of Facebook and Twitter. With all telephone lines and networks being affected, a team of youngsters got together on Facebook to provide help in disseminating information about the city situation and those affected. Vaibhav Sisinty, who had BSNL WIFI access, was prompt to post on Facebook: “If you want to get connected to someone in Vizag and you are not able to reach them, share their names and address below. We will try to reach them and make sure they are fine.” His post had received a lot of queries with people sharing phone numbers of relatives. Prasanth Pinaka shared his number 9030538540 on FB for those affected at Gurudwara Junction area. Providing information on networks working in selected areas, Jignesh Talasila shared on Facebook that at MVP Area – Vodafone and at GITAM – Airtel was working.
His team is collecting and distributing food items like biscuits, bread and other packaged eatables, water packets, water purifying tablets and mosquito repellents to those affected by the cyclonic storm.
Volunteers were trying to reach out to several college students staying in hostels and PGs affected due to the severe cyclone. “We have tried talking to a few in our college. They haven’t taken food since yesterday. We are doing whatever best we can right now,” said Vaibhav, who was reaching out to affected people at Rushikonda.
Twitter messagesTwitter was flooded with messages from people across the world trying to reach out to their friends and relatives in Visakhapatnam. On Facebook, community groups like Hudhud, Hudhud Cyclone Relief were created by people to offer a common platform to families who were trying to reach out to their near and dear ones in cyclone affected areas.
