Cyclone Phailin kills 23, triggers flood threat in Bihar, Chhattisgarh

Bhubaneswar: An unprecedented and timely evacuation drive, said to be the country's biggest ever, ensured minimum casualties as Cyclone Phailin slammed into coastal Odisha on Saturday evening. 23 people, including two in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, have died in the aftermath of the "very severe" storm, which has since weakened.

"The first priority was to save precious human lives and to a great extent we have achieved that," Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told NDTV. (Watch) But now, with Phailin moving further inland, there is flood threat in Mayurbhanj and Baripada districts of Odisha and neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.

As Phailin passed through Odisha, nearly half of Baripada town was submerged due to a rise in water levels in the river, causing panic among the people. Several villages too were inundated as river Baitarani rose past the danger mark.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the cyclone is now closer to Chhattisgarh-Odisha border and very heavy rains are expected over north Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim in the next 48 hours. (Read)

Heavy rains and surging seawater, accompanying Phailin, the strongest storm to hit the country in more than a decade, flattened tens of thousands of thatched homes, destroyed more than five lakh hectares of crops and knocked out power lines in Odisha.

The worst affected area, around the coastal town of Gopalpur where the eye of Phailin came ashore packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour, was still without power as emergency services rushed to help people living there. Hundreds of workers from the country's National Disaster Response Force fanned out across the region, clearing away fallen trees from roads, mangled power poles and other debris.

The Indian Meteorological Department or IMD, whose predictions for the cyclone were consistently below those from foreign meteorologists who foresaw higher wind speeds and greater damage, comparable to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, stood vindicated. (Read)

"After the exaggerated manner in which international agencies tried to portray it (the cyclone and disaster), the IMD has done an excellent job," said M Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.