Strongest cyclone in 20 years barrelled at 175km/hr uprooting trees, damaging houses
Cyclone Fani (also known as Phani, meaning “hood of the snake” in Bengali) rolled through Odisha’s Puri on Friday, bringing rain and windstorm that gusted up to 175 kmph, leaving at least 8 people dead, and blowing away thatched houses, uprooting trees, electricity polls, cutting off power supply, and swamping towns and villages in the State.
The strongest cyclone in India in 20 years made landfall around 8 am in Puri, with roaring winds flattening huts, enveloping the pilgrim town in sheets of rain, and submerging homes in residential areas.
The extremely severe cyclone Fani, a name given by Bangladesh, weakened from an “extremely severe” to “very severe”, and is predicted to further weaken to a “severe cyclone” before moving to West Bengal.
In several videos doing rounds on social media showed the impact of the powerful gale and heavy rain. In videos posted by Sitangshu Kar, the Director General of the Press Information Bureau, the roof of an undergraduate hostel in the Bhubaneswar AIIMS was seen being blown off. Later the wind speed of Fani came down to around 140-165 kmph.
According to officials, large areas in Puri and other places were submerged with water as heavy rain battered the entire coastal belt of the State. Several trees were uprooted and thatched structures destroyed at some places, including Bhubaneswar. All flights from Bhubaneswar have been cancelled since Thursday midnight, and Kolkata airport is shut from 3 pm on Friday till 8 am on Saturday. 140 trains, including 83 passenger trains, have been cancelled so far.
In Bhubaneswar, people took shelter under shades as the heavy rain lashed the city. They said their “homes were shaking”. After crossing Odisha, cyclone Fani is likely to move towards West Bengal before tapering off. Cyclone Fani also triggered heavy rain in parts of north coastal Andhra Pradesh, where gusty winds with speed reaching up to 140 kmph uprooted trees and electricity poles, officials said.
The Odisha Government has evacuated over 11 lakh people, including at least 600 pregnant women, to camps on higher grounds.
“I assure the affected people that the nation and the centre are with them,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally in Rajasthan. He said over Rs 1,000 crore had been released in advance for the states affected by Fani.
The Union Health Ministry has announced cancellation of Bhubaneswar as a centre for the AIIMS PG 2019 examination due to Fani.
“AIIMS PG exam is scheduled on May 5. Due to cyclone Fani, AIIMS Delhi is cancelling the exam centre in Bhubaneswar. Another exam will be conducted for students affected by this cancellation as soon as normalcy returns (sic),” Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan tweeted.
KJ Ramesh, Director General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), predicted light to moderate rain in northeastern States — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura due to cyclone while heavy to very heavy rain predicted over Arunachal Pradesh and Assam on May 4 and 5.
“After making landfall this morning, cyclone Fani has started weakening and it’s likely to enter Bangladesh by Saturday evening,” he said.
No cyclone ever had such a long duration in April. The Home Ministry said an eye of cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ “completely moved into land” by 10 am on Friday weakening its fury, but heavy rainfall is still predicted in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and parts of the northeastern States.
The system is likely to weaken gradually and emerge into Gangetic West Bengal as a “severe cyclonic storm” by the early morning of May 4. Thereafter, it is expected to move further north-northeastwards and emerge into Bangladesh by May 4 evening as a cyclonic storm.
Earlier on Friday morning, Fani had crossed the Odisha coast close to Puri with sustained wind speed of 175- to 185 km/hr gusting to 205 km/hr between 8 am and 10 am and weakened into a very severe cyclone.
The IMD said it would continue to move North-North-East over land and weaken further into a severe cyclonic storm over a period of nine hours. The severe cyclone would then emerge into the plains of Bengal with wind speeds reaching up to 100 kilometres/hour (km/hr) gusting to 115 km/hr by Saturday morning.
Further movement towards the North-North-East would take Fani as a cyclone into Bangladesh by Saturday evening with wind speeds of up to 70 km/hr gusting to 80 km/hr. Apart from Odisha coast, Fani is expected to affect West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.