Cyclone Fani Makes Landfall in Puri: With Fani in Odisha cancelling trains, dislocating millions, CM Naveen Patnaik faces a huge challenge
Cyclone Fani made landfall in Puri, Odisha, during the morning hours of May 3, 2019. It is the deadliest cyclone to hit Odisha since the Super Cyclone in 1999 — which killed over 10,000 people.
The wind speeds during the landfall now were as high as 175 km/hr. Around 10,000 villages and 52 towns are in grave danger as they lie in the path of the cyclone.
The Indian Meteorogical Department tweeted that as of 10 AM IST, the eye of the cyclone had crossed the coast of Odisha and moved into land area.
As of now, Cyclone Fani has caused several trees to be uprooted in Bhubaneshwar and heavy downpours continue along the coastline. Cyclone Fani is likely to weaken from éxtremely severe’to ‘very severe’ in the next six hours. In the wake of the cyclone, several people in Odisha took to Twitter to share information from ground zero.
A viral video shows ‘the sound and the fury’of the cyclone during landfall at Puri:
Another user shared pictures of the submerged deck of a ship deployed during the cyclone:
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra took to Twitter to explain the situation in Odisha and express his concern for the evacuees impacted by Cyclone Fani in Odisha:
As of now, one million people have been evacuated from vulnerable districts and are taking refuge in cyclone shelters. There has also been a report of a woman dying on her way to a cyclone shelter in Debendranarayanpur, a coastal village in Odisha. Around 604 pregnant women have been shifted to maternal care centres.
The government took several steps to ensure the safety of the people during the massive storm and impact of Cyclone Fani. The government under CM Naveen Patnaik has set up 4,852 shelters where people under distress have been provided with cooked food. Twenty-eight units of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) have been deployed and 525 fire fighters are ready for rescue operations.
Around 300 boats are kept ready in case of a flood following Cyclone Fani.
Aircrafts and helicopters are also ready for air-dropping relief material.
Latest reports suggest that Cyclone Fani is now moving towards Bengal.
All flights to and from Kolkata Airport from 3 p.m. (IST) today, to 8 a.m. (IST) tomorrow have been cancelled. In addition, 157 trains in Odisha stand cancelled. The flight operations at Biju Patnaik International Airport (Odisha) have been suspended since midnight.
If you are in distress, here are Odisha’s emergency contact numbers for Cyclone Fani.
How Odisha will manage Cyclone Fani will, of course, be another huge test for CM Naveen Patnaik, whose disaster management abilities had to withstand the impact of huge earlier storms including Phailin (2013) and Hudhud (2014) hitting Odisha. With Cyclone Fani now, Patnaik faces another massive challenge.
For the ordinary citizen now, there is only thing to do at the moment.
Stay calm, stay alert and stay safe.