1.2m flee homes as monster storm batters east India
SIX KILLED, AT LEAST 200 TRAINS CANCELLED ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Cyclone Fani, the strongest storm to hit India since 1999, tore through the eastern coast yesterday, lashing beaches with rain and winds gusting up to 205km/h and affecting weather as far away as Mount Everest as it approached Kolkata. The ‘extremely severe’ cyclone in the Bay of Bengal impacted across the Asian subcontinent. Around 1.2 million people were evacuated from low-lying areas of Odisha and moved to nearly 4,000 shelters. Odisha officials said the evacuation effort was unprecedented in India. Bangladesh, which lies further up the path of Fani, ordered the evacuation of 2.1 million people before the storm arrives today. Bhubaneshwar passengers were affected as Emirates and Etihad cancelled Kolkata flights.
At least six people died in Odisha after Cyclone Fani tore through India’s eastern coast yesterday as a Grade 5 storm, lashing beaches with rain and winds gusting up to 205 kilometres per hour and affecting weather as far away as Mount Everest as it approached Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital city.
The India Meteorological Department said the “extremely severe” cyclone in the Bay of Bengal hit the coastal state of Odisha around 8am, with weather impacted across the Asian subcontinent.
Dust storms were forecast in the desert state of Rajasthan bordering Pakistan, heatwaves in the coastal state of Maharashtra on the Arabian Sea, heavy rain in the northeastern states bordering China and snowfall in the Himalayas.
Around 1.2 million people were evacuated from low-lying areas of Odisha and moved to nearly 4,000 shelters, according to India’s National Disaster Response Force. Indian officials put the navy, air force, army and coast guard on high alert. .
‘Very, very scary feeling’
By yesterday afternoon, Fani had weakened to a “very severe” storm as it hovered over coastal Odisha and was forecast to move north-northeast toward the Indian state of West Bengal by evening. In Bhubaneswar, a city in Odisha famous for an 11th-century Hindu temple, palm trees whipped back and forth like mops across skies made opaque by gusts of rain.
It is a “very, very scary feeling,” said Tanmay Das, a 40-year-old resident, who described “the sound of wind as if it will blow you away.”
Most of the area’s thatchedroof houses were destroyed, and there was no electricity.
The national highway to Puri, a popular tourist beach city with other significant Hindu antiquities, was littered with fallen trees and electricity poles and a blue highway sign, making it impassable.
A special train ran on Thursday to evacuate tourists from the city.
The airport in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, was closed from 3pm yesterday until this morning, and rail lines were closed. At least 200 trains were cancelled across India.
The National Disaster Response Force dispatched 54 rescue and relief teams to floodprone areas along the coast and as far afield as Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Meanwhile authorities in Bangladesh evacuated about 400,000 people and took them to cyclone shelters as the weather office forecast that the storm would cross the country’s vast coastal region by midnight.
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