Ms Jayalalithaa in her appeal said cyclone Thane had caused unprecedented damage to infrastructure, crops and houses in Cuddalore and Villupuram districts.

Ms Jayalalithaa said the cyclone had set back the economy of the people and robbed them of their belongings and livelihood. Thousands of trees have been felled by it.The electricity infrastructure was battered by the cyclone resulting in total disruption of power and water supply in Cuddalore district. In all, four lakh huts and houses had been damaged. Crops on over two lakh hectares had been devastated, she said.

The swift response of the Government had brought back near normalcy in the cyclone affected areas, Ms Jayalalithaa said. The entire government machinery had been pressed into service to provide necessary relief and succour to the affected people. The State Government had sanctioned 850 crore rupees for relief and immediate restoration of basic infrastructure. Further, the state government has approached the Centre for assistance to the extent of  5,249 crore rupees. 

Although the government under her leadership had provided immediate relief to the affected persons, a lot more was needed to be done for complete rehabilitation of the affected families and restoration of the infrastructure wrecked by the cyclone, she said and appealed to all public spirited citizens, corporate houses, non government organisations and philanthropists to lend a helping hand to the massive relief and rehabilitation effort launched by the government through their contributions.

The contributions could be made by means of crossed cheques or demand drafts, for which no commission would be charged by the banks. These instruments should be made out in favour of the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund and sent to The Joint Secretary to Government and Treasurer Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund, Finance Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, Secretariat, Chennai 600009.

An official receipt would be sent to the contributor and the contributions would be entitled to 100 per cent tax exemption under Section 80(g) of the Income Tax Act, Ms Jayalalithaa said.