Weakening further, Cyclone Phailin has finally turned into "deep depression" with wind speed of 45-55 kilometres per hour, the Met department has said. The cyclone, classified as very severe when it made landfall near Gopalpur in Odisha last night, snapped power and communication lines in the state and damaged over 2.34 lakh houses affecting nearly 80 lakh people.
Here are the latest developments:
So far, 23 people are reported to have died due to cyclone-related incidents. Six of them died before the storm hit yesterday.
India Meteorological Department chief LS Rathore told reporters this morning that accurate track and intensity predictions helped save lives.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has said that rehabilitation is now a "big challenge" for his government. "First priority was to save precious human lives and to a great extent we have achieved that," Mr Patnaik told NDTV, as his government moved over nine lakh people to safer places ahead of the cyclone.
Very heavy rains are expected over north Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim in the next 48 hours, with cyclonic storm 'Phailin' now closer to Chhattisgarh-Odisha border, National Disaster Management Authority said today.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General Krishna Chaudhary said 29 relief and rescue teams are presently working in Odisha, three teams in Bihar and two in Jharkhand. Two teams have been kept as back up in Bihar. 19 teams have also been deployed in Andhra Pradesh, he said.
The NDMA said relief work is being carried out by NDRF teams and 685 km of roads have already been cleared. 1,073 relief camps are working in Odisha at present and 135 in Andhra Pradesh.
The morning after the cyclone hit, cars were seen tumbled over on the roads in areas like Berhampur. Trees and electricity poles were uprooted due to strong winds. Glass windows of several houses were shattered and roofs of kuchcha houses were blown away. Efforts are on to reopen road connectivity and restore communication and power lines soonest.
Ganjam district in south Odisha is believed to have been the worst-hit due to the cyclone, with extensive damage to crops and some buildings. "Over five lakh hectares of standing crops have been destroyed by the gushing waters causing an estimated loss of Rs. 2,400 crore," Odisha Revenue Minister S N Patro told PTI.
The East Coast Railway has restored train services between Howrah and Puri. The cyclone had destroyed railway signals and high-tension electricity wires and uprooted tracks and railway platforms at various stations, which led to 56 trains being cancelled yesterday.
As the cyclone hit Gopalpur yesterday, tidal waves rose to 3.5 metres. In Ganjam district, there were reports of wind speeds hitting upto 240 km per hour.
