Patna: Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday assured financial support to Bihar after conducting an aerial survey of the cyclone-hit areas. The deadly storm has left 55 people dead and displaced thousands of people, besides destroying crops in over 140,000 hectares of land.

Accompanied by federal agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, federal minister for Communication and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Singh conducted an aerial survey of the areas ravaged by storms for more than an hour on Friday afternoon to take stock of the situation. The home minister was visibly moved after seeing large-scale destruction but did not announce any financial package for the affected region.

“The storm has caused extensive damage to both human lives and property, and Union government strongly stands by the people of Bihar in this hour of crisis. We will provide all possible assistance to the state government,” the home minister told the media. He asked the chief minister to send its memorandum soon.

The Bihar chief minister on his part unusually heaped lavish praise on the centre for its “quick response” towards the disaster saying just about every important person in the government, such as the prime minister, finance minister and agriculture minister, instantly talked to him once they got to know about the disaster. “They assured to provide us all the necessary assistance. We will put forward our demand for assistance if required,” Kumar said.

However, the situation on the ground remains far from satisfactory as the affected villagers are angry over delay in providing assistance.

“Three days after the disaster, the leaders are still conducting aerial surveys of the affected areas and assessing the damage. We have been left to fend for ourselves,” said Mohammad Fakruddin, a resident of Malobita village under Dagarua block in Purnia district, who lost two family members in the disaster.

In fact, the villagers have suffered double attacks. While on the one hand, they lost near and dear ones, on the other they have got their standing crops badly damaged in the storms. Maize and banana have been the main crops of the areas but these two plantations have been almost completely damaged in the disaster. Wheat crops, pulses, mangos and litchis have also suffered extensive damage.

The storm has left a trail of destruction in at least seven districts of north-eastern Bihar, with damaged houses, flattened maize and banana fields and uprooted fruit trees telling horror story of devastation. Quite a huge number of villagers have lost food stocks as the storm, which was accompanied hail, destroyed them beyond use.

Purnia district bore the brunt of maximum damage with a total of 38 deaths reported from there alone, followed by seven deaths reported from Madhepura, three from Madhubani, two deaths each from Sitamarhi, Katihar and Darbhanga while one death was from Supaul district.

Although there is still no exact official figure as to how many villagers have been rendered homeless, a rough estimate says their number could be around half million.

“We are unable to provide you exact data of affected villagers since we are still conducting a survey of areas but the damage is huge,” said state disaster management’s special secretary Anirudh Kumar.

He said the affected families were being provided food grains, cash, utensils and other items to help the villagers in distress,” Kumar said adding the relief was also being provided to the farmers who had their crops damaged in the storm.

“Our houses were blown away in the tropical storm and we passed the entire night covering ourselves in plastic sheets,” a grieving Muslim woman told journalists at Gosaintola village in Purnia district. She was seen repeatedly urging the media people to arrange food for them.

Another villager said he had not seen such kind of storm in his lifetime. “I had gone to attend a wedding function in the vicinity when I saw the tent and bamboo sticks getting blown away in the sky like kites as all the guests rushed inside the home to save themselves. Inside the room, we could we hear the cracking sounds of flying asbestos, roof tiles, collapsing walls and uprooting trees as there was no power. We had to keep our mobile flash light on to protect ourselves,” recounted Mukesh Kumar Sinha from Purnia. “For close to one hour, we lived in complete horror as death stared at us. Thank God we are alive now,” he added.