Mass evacuations as monster cyclone targets eastern India

Nearly 800,000 people in eastern India have been evacuated from the expected path of a major cyclone packing winds up to 200 km/h and torrential rains, officials said on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Indian weather service said Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani was expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon in Odisha state and barrel northeastward on a pathway close to the homes of more than 100 million people.

A state relief department official said that 780,000 people were moved to safer places overnight from at least 13 districts of Odisha, home to around 46 million people, which will bear the brunt of the weather system.

“We are expecting more than a million people to move out of the danger zone in next 12 hours,” Bishnupada Sethi, Odisha Special Relief Commissioner, told AFP.

About 3,000 shelters in schools and government buildings have been set up to accommodate more than a million people. More than 100,000 dry food packets are ready to be dropped if needed, reports said.

On Thursday, the storm, which reports said was the biggest to hit eastern India in nearly two decades, was brewing in the Bay of Bengal nearly 250 kilometers offshore and moving slowly but ominously westward.

The cyclone was expected to pack sustained wind speeds of 180-190 km/h, bringing gusts of up to 200 km/h, equivalent in strength to a Category 3 to 4 hurricane.

It was expected to make landfall near the Hindu holy town of Puri, a major tourist hotspot attracting millions of visitors every year.

Forecasters have predicted “heavy to very heavy” rain on Friday in some places and “extremely heavy” rain the next day.

India’s weather office has warned that the high speed winds can uproot trees, flatten crops and damage homes, power and communication infrastructure.

The neighboring coastal states of Andhra Pradesh, home to 50 million people, and Tamil Nadu, population some 70 million, have also been put on high alert.

Authorities have put Indian navy on high alert in the area for relief work, Xinhua News Agency reported.

India’s cyclone season generally lasts from April to December, with severe storms often leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, widespread deaths and damage to crops and property in both India and Bangladesh, Reuters said.

In 2017, Cyclone Ockhi left 250 people dead and more than 600 missing in Tamil Nadu and Kerala states.

The worst cyclone on record in Odisha in 1999, killed almost 10,000 people and caused an estimated $4.5 billion worth of devastation.

REUTERS A fisherman leaves for a safer place after tying his boats along the shore ahead of cyclone Fani in Peda Jalaripeta, India, on Wednesday.