Thousands of people were evacuated, the Army was put on alert, and authorities in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh braced up for cyclone Phailin that is expected to hit the east coast with winds gusting up to 220 kmph on Saturday evening. Compared with Hurricane Katarina, which wreaked havoc in the US in 2005, Phailin has triggered worldwide alarm.
According to a bulletin released by India Meteorology Department (IMD) on Friday, the cyclone will move northwestwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast between Kalingapatnam and Paradip, close to Gopalpur (Odisha) by the evening of October 12. It is expected to be a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 210-220 kmph.
Squall reaching 65 kmph will prevail along the coastal Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh during next 12 hours. Thereafter, it will increase in intensity with gale speed reaching 210-220 kmph along and off coastal districts of north coastal Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha at the time of landfall.
IMD chief Dr lS Rathore said Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts in Odisha and Srikakalum in AP will be worst hit. Rathore said the cyclone over east central Bay of Bengal currently lay 450 km southeast of Gopalpur.
“Phailin is a very severe cyclone,” Rathore said in Delhi. However, Rathore said the storm, which will hit the coast at 6 PM, is unlikely to develop into a super cyclone. “The US Navy has forecast that the wind speed will be above 240 kmph. Therefore, the cyclone is not less than any super cyclone for us,” Special Relief Commissioner PK Mohapatra told reporters in Bhubaneshwar.
Mohapatra said the IMD had declared the 1999 calamity as a super cyclone as the wind speed had crossed 220 kmph. An estimated 9,885 persons were killed in that super cyclone. Squall with a wind speed of 45-55 kmph to 65 kmph have already started along Odisha coast since morning under the impact of Phailin. About 25 cm of rain has been predicted in 24 hours in the affected districts. The Odisha health department cancelled holidays and leave of all doctors in view of the impending situation even as the State Government set a target of “zero casualty” and ordered speedy evacuation of people in seven coastal districts.
In Andhra Pradesh, the administration had started evacuating the people from vulnerable areas. Andhra Pradesh Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad that 64,000 people were being evacuated from the low lying areas of three districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhpatanam. “We have asked the district collectors to complete the process of evacuation by this evening,” he said.
The Departments of Disaster Management, police and the weather officer were working in a close coordination. “We have also requested the army and the navy to be ready to help us,” he added. The people being evacuated include 20,000 from Rikakulam district (adjacent to Odisha), 4,000 form Vijayanagaram and 40,000 from Visakhapatanam.
The district-level officials of the revenue department and other concerned departments were already in the field. “I am appealing to the people to fully cooperate in minimising the losses. We cannot stop the cyclone but we can minimise the damage,” he said.