Cyclone Fani: PM Modi reviews preparedness with his senior officers
Highlights
- The cyclone is also likely to impact Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bengal
- Evacuations have started on a war footing in coastal districts of Puri
- The super cyclone of 1999 devastated large parts of Odisha
Almost 1 million people from Odisha have been evacuated to temporary shelters as Cyclone Fani is expected to make landfall tomorrow morning on the Odisha coast, south of temple town Puri. While all flights from Bhubaneswar have been cancelled from midnight tonight, no flight will take off or land in Kolkata from 9.30pm tomorrow till 6pm on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness on the ground ahead of the "extremely severe cyclone". The cyclone is very likely to move further north-northeastwards to Bangladesh on April 4 evening.
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Evacuations have started on a war footing in the coastal districts of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam, Khordha, Cuttack and Jajpur. District authorities have been directed to take immediate measures to evacuate all tourists from Bengal's beaches Digha, Mandarmani, Shankarpur, Tajpur and other tourist spots ahead of Cyclone Fani's landfall tomorrow morning.
The Indian Meteorological Department has warned of very heavy rainfall, "phenomenal sea conditions" and winds up to 175 km/hr when the cyclone makes landfall south of Puri.
The defence forces are on high alert ahead of Cyclone Fani. The Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and fire service have been deployed in vulnerable areas to help the administration in evacuations.
The NDRF has deployed 28 teams in Odisha, 12 in Andhra Pradesh and six teams in West Bengal for relief and rescue work. Over 30 additional teams are on standby with boats, tree cutters, telecom equipment said officials.
Eight rescue teams, four each at Visakhapatnam and Chennai, have been positioned. Two ships are ready at both the locations for immediate mobilisation after the cyclone. Two Chetak helicopters are also ready to transport relief material, said the chief of Coast Guard East.
Volunteers at the Red Cross Bhavan in Bhubaneswar are packaging relief material including dry food items for distribution.
The storm is currently over the Bay of Bengal about 450 km southwest of Puri and moving towards the coast at a speed of 6 km/hr, the IMD said in its weather bulletin.
The Indian Railways cancelled 89 trains including Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandal Express, Patna-Eranakulam Express, New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express, Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express, Bhubaneswar-Rameswaram Express, New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express, New Delhi-Puri Nandan Kanan Express and Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has asked senior officers to personally oversee relief, rescue operations in the coastal districts. Around 880 cyclone shelters have been set up in 11 districts of Odisha.
Cyclone Fani is also likely to impact Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. In West Bengal, it will affect East and West Medinipur, South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Jhargram districts and state capital Kolkata. In Andhra Pradesh, three districts of Srikakulam, Vijayanagram and Visakhapatnam are likely to be affected.
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