Cyclone Fani, the most severe storm since the super cyclone of 1999 that killed 10,000 people in Odisha, has started making its impact felt in the Odisha coast, the weather office said.
The impact of the landfall is likely to continue till noon and after that, the cyclone is expected to move north-westwards and gradually weaken as it reaches West Bengal by early Friday (May 3).
The Odisha government has already evacuated lakhs of people from the coastal areas to camps on higher grounds. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and disaster management agencies are on fully prepared and on stand-by.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday, reviewed preparedness for Cyclone Fani with his senior-most officials.
Here are the top 10 updates on Cyclone Fani
The home ministry has set up a control room and anyone who needs assistance or updates on Cyclone Fani can call on the helpline number 1938.
Odisha government moved over a million people to safety and advised the public to remain indoor today.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm moved closer to the Odisha coast much before the earlier forecast of 3 pm, said Chief Secretary AP Padhi. The entire process of landfall will take four to five hours, he added.
The districts which are in the path of the Cyclone Fani are Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Naygarh, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore, Mr Padhi said. Three more districts of Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar may also be badly impacted.
Cyclone Fani is currently at about 65 km southwest of Puri and 280 km north of Visakhapatnam said the Indian Meteorological Department.
Gopalpur, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Paradip, Chandbali, Balasore, Kalingapatnam saw strong winds and received heavy rainfall overnight. Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh also received heavy rainfall
Relief commissioners and District Collectors are leading the operations on the ground. Trucks are ready with relief material in Bhubaneswar. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is closely monitoring the situation.
The East Coast Railway has cancelled over 147 trains till May 4. Three special trains were run from Puri to Howrah and Shalimar in West Bengal on Thursday to facilitate the evacuation of tourists.
Thirty-four disaster relief teams and four ships with relief material have been deployed to handle emergency situations. Disaster Response Teams are stationed at Vizag, Chennai, Paradip, Gopalpur, Haldia, Frazergunj, and Kolkata. Four Coast Guard ships have also been deployed – two each at Vizag and Chennai.
Cyclone Fani will also 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.
