Cyclone Fani LIVE UPDATES: Storm moving towards Bangladesh, no major impact in WB; UN praises India on minimising loss of life
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Cyclone Fani LIVE UPDATES: Packing heavy rain and winds with speeds of up to 175 kmph, cyclonic storm 'Fani' slammed into the Odisha coast Friday morning, uprooting trees and sweeping away thatched huts, as large areas of the seaside pilgrim town of Puri were left submerged. The extremely severe cyclonic storm made landfall at around 8 a.m. in Puri but thanks to enough advance warning, about 11 lakh people had already been evacuated from vulnerable and low-lying areas of at least 11 coastal districts by Thursday. "It will take around three hours for the entire landfall process to be completed" by 11 a.m., Director of Regional Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, H R Biswas, said.
The cyclonic system, whose eye is around 28 km wide, is moving at around 30 kmph, Biswas said. But within the system, the winds are reaching speeds of up to 175 kilometers per hour that may go up to 200 kmph, leaving in their wake uprooted trees and thatched structures, including in the state capital Bhubaneswar.
High winds are also sweeping across several coastal districts like Ganjam, Khurda and Gajapati, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said. He said the nearly 11 lakh people evacuated earlier from about 10,000 villages and 52 urban areas have been accommodated in over 4,000 shelters, including 880 specially designed cyclone centres.
Arrangements have been made to start free kitchens at the cyclone shelters. Around 4,000 such shelters, including 880 specially designed cyclone centres, are housing the evacuees. Over one lakh dry food packets have been kept ready for air dropping for which two choppers requisitioned, Sethi said.
The Indian Coast Guard has positioned 34 disaster relief teams at different spots at Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Gopalpur, Haldia, Frazergunj and Kolkata. It has also deployed four ships to handle any exigency. After crossing Odisha, the cyclone Fani is likely to move towards West Bengal before tapering off. It is, however, still likely to impact parts of the northeast, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Fani is billed as the most severe cyclonic storm since the super cyclone of 1999 that claimed close to 10,000 lives and left a trail of destruction in vast swathes of Odisha, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre.
The cyclone barrelled through Odisha on Friday, unleashing copious rain and windstorm that gusted up to 175 kmph, killing at least eight people, blowing away thatched houses and swamping towns and villages.
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