As many as 258 deaths were reported from Kandla alone, where the people were caught unawares as there was no advance warning of the cyclone. Bodies were still being found; it is feared that the final tally may run into four figures.

Search for the bodies was hampered when a leak from an LPG storage tank at nearby old Kandla created panic, making people flee the town in all kind of vehicles, clogging roads. Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel cut short his tour and did not visit Kandla hospital where the bodies were kept.

The leak was later plugged, but the panic spread to nearby Gandhidham, Adipur and Anjar towns, and an exodus began from there too. Later, announcements were made on loudspeakers that there had been no gas leak and it was a rumour.

Before leaving for Jamnagar and Porbandar, the Chief Minister described thehavoc wreaked by the cyclone as ``the biggest disaster in the state, involving death of unaccountable people''. He placed Rs 2 crore at the disposal of the local authorities for organising relief and rescue, and empowered Kutch Collector Mukesh Puri to do whatever was necessary without waiting for government sanction for funds.

Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya told media that 276 persons had died in Kutch district, 43 in Jamnagar, 32 in Rajkot, 12 in Porbandar, four in Junagarh, two each in Banaskantha and Surat, and one each in Amreli, Bhavnagar, Bharuch, Navsari and Valsad.

Most of the victims in Kandla were salt pan workers and casual labour employed at the port who lived in the labour colonies of Sarva, Meethapur, and Zeerport. The houses in these areas were flattened by the storm. Many people were drowned in the three-metre high tidal wave, and then swept away in the low tide.

Only those bodies were found where the victims clung to trees, poles or some other object. Marine experts at Kandlasaid there was little chance of recovery of bodies of others as the tidal current flowed straight into the Persian Gulf. Such was fury of the cyclone that many vessels anchored at the port broke loose and run aground. One big ship had hit the ground at Satsaida island opposite Kandal jetty.

Two boats were beached on the newly constructed four-lane national highway 8-A, which suffered extensive damage.

Eyewitnesses said signs of an impending storm first appeared in the morning, but the people took it as one of the usual storms which hit the area off an on. Besides, there was no warning of a cyclone in the area. Around 2.00 pm winds of 140 kilometre per hour started lashing the town. For the next two hours, it was sheer hell.

Sea water surrounded the entire town and flooded the first floor houses in the multi-storey Kandla Port Trust residential colony. The people saved their lives by climbing to higher floors. The tidal water was two metre high at the power jetty. A mammoth petrol tank of an oil companywas upturned. The Kandla Salt Works, which is the Asia's biggest, vanished without a trace.

KPT Chairman A N M Kishor said all their 15 craft had sunk and the port had suffered a loss of Rs 300 crore, excluding the loss of the stored cargo.

As the Kandla port meets the petroleum products needs of the entire north-western India, Kishor said his priority was to make all the jetties operational in a week's time. It would take another week to resume loading and unloading of dry cargo, Kishor said, and added that he was also trying to arrange some crafts on loan.

More than 24 hours after the tragedy hit the town, people complained of absence of any kind of relief work by the government. Kanji Jakhu, former chief of the Sarva Harijan Colony, said no one from the administration had turned up to help them since yesterday.