Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/173

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RAINFALL AND SEAS0N8.

Three years later, yet another storm drove ashore a ship lying in the roads, sank some of the vessels in the river and damaged others, and caused immense havoc inland. Kasimkóta and Anakápalle had 'little left of them.' and Vizagapatam ' in general was in ruin, scarce a House with its roofing and few with the walls standing. Our people have been employed ever since in Burying the Dead Bodies both of men and cattle which were left in the Town as the waters went off.'

On the night of the 29th September 1867 a cyclone passed over Vizianagram and its neighbourhood (the wind coming first from the north-west and afterwards from the south-east) which blew the lantern off the Santapilly lighthouse and was reported to have damaged every single tiled and thatched building in the town and cantonment of Vizianagram, swept the roof off the church, blown down hundreds of trees, and torn the branches and leaves off those which it could not uproot.

On the 23rd to 25th October 1870 unusual rain fell in the centre of the district and caused a flood. At Vizianagram 16 inches were registered in 36 hours, and at Bimiipatam there were three feet of water on the salt platforms and the police constables had to climb on the roof of their lines to save their lives.

Twelve days later a furious cyclone swept over the district, the centre of it being near Vizagapatam.

It began from the north-north-east at 11 P.M. on November 4th, and ended at 5 A.M. next morning from the east-south-east. At Vizagapatam the sea rose and swept over the beach road, doing damage to the extent of Rs. 3,500; smashed up many of the masúla boats on the beach; and flooded the lower parts of the town, drowning six people and doing Rs. 6,000 worth of damage to municipal property. The wind almost levelled with the ground the temporary jail and the lines of the native regiment (one life was lost in the latter) and blew down the belfry of the church at Waltair. The anemometer at Mr. A. V. Narasinga Rao's observatory recorded that the gale was travelling at the rate of 100 miles an hour, and then one of its cups was blown off. Anakápalle town was flooded, the water being up to the parapet of the bridge over the Sárada river, and throughout the path of the cyclone trees and houses were blown down, and roads and bridges were damaged.

In June and July 1872 heavy rain fell in the hills. The Indrávati rose and swept away 25 villages on its bank, the inhabitants escaping with their smaller personal property but losing their grain and cattle, and the Vamsadhára demolished the bungalows at Gudári and Gunupur, as well as other property.

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