HYDERABAD (India), Sept 21: At least 64 people have died and hundreds of thousands displaced after powerful storms left a trail of devastation across the Indian and Bangladeshi coasts in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday.

The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh bore the brunt of the storms, which killed 58 people in the region.

Officials had earlier placed the state’s death toll at 27.

Six more people have died in storm-hit Orissa state, which adjoins Andhra Pradesh.

“The situation is very grim and so far we have evacuated 150,000 displaced people to 473 (emergency) relief camps in 10 of the 23 districts hit by the storms,” Andhra Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy said in the state capital of Hyderabad.

Mr Reddy said 9,747 houses were completely damaged by the storms and another 82,353 homes partially submerged in the coastal districts.

Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister Raghuveera Reddy said the rains accompanied by buffeting winds had caused damage worth 180 billion rupees to crops, state facilities and homes.

The chief minister, in a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is visiting Andhra Pradesh, also sought federal assistance of 120 billion rupees.

“Apart from the financial assistance we have also sought 1.2 million tons of rice and the prime minister’s response was quite positive,” the chief minister added.

The torrent submerged roads and rail tracks as winds flattened tens of thousands of trees and power poles, witnesses said.

Officials sounded a flood alert after opening the sluice gates of a brimming reservoir in the state’s Vijaywada district, where a levee on the swirling Krishna river burst on Wednesday and flooded the township of Ajitnagar.

The airport in the port city of Vishakapatnam was closed for the third straight day on Wednesday, the air force said, adding that military helicopters were evacuating marooned people.—AFP