Live: Severe Cyclone Bites Odisha Leaving Eight Dead

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation restored operations at its fields in Bay of Bengal. While the cyclone made a landfall around Puri, most of ONGC installations are off the Andhra coast.

Sources said that all operations have been restored and employees are being moved by boats to installations. ONGC had six rigs operating off the Andhra coast, four of which were moved away from the path of the severe cyclonic storm earlier this week, sources added, and said that they will be brought back to their locations over the next couple of days.

The company had begun evacuating staff from the rigs as early as on April 27 and had by May 1 completed evacuation of around 500 of them.

Inputs from PTI

Cyclone Fani 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, officials said.

Though the 'extremely severe' cyclone unexpectedly weakened into 'very severe' cyclonic storm in a matter of few hours, it left a trail of devastation in large parts of coastal Odisha, with the seaside pilgrim town of Puri being the worst hit.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who reviewed the situation, said Puri district suffered huge damage. "Energy infrastructure has been completely destroyed. Restoration of electricity is a challenging task," he said.

Work is on to restore road communication, thrown into disarray with thousands of uprooted trees blocking the way in innumerable places, Patnaik said

The chief minister said nearly 12 lakh people were evacuated and shifted to safer locations within 24 hours ahead of the cyclone from about 10,000 villages and 52 urban agglomerations in probably the largest such exercise at the time of a natural calamity in the country.

The evacuees have been accommodated in over 4,000 shelters, including 880 specially designed cyclone centres where free cooked food is being served to them, he said.

Inputs from PTI

Bangladesh on Friday evacuated over five lakh people from its southwestern districts as the cyclone, brewing over the Bay of Bengal, is drawing closer and is likely to hit the country late night after ravaging the Indian coastlines.

Rains lashed parts of Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh as a fall out of Cyclone Fani, which hit the Odisha coast Friday, but no human casualties have been reported, officials said.

Nine head of cattle and 12 sheep were killed in rain-related incidents, while over 2,000 electricity poles were uprooted because of high velocity winds and 218 cellular phone towers damaged, they said.

Three people were killed in separate incidents as cyclone Fani battered the Odisha coast on Friday, officials said.

• A teenager was killed when a tree came crashing down on him at a place within Sakhigopal police station area limits in Puri district.
• Flying debris from a concrete structure hit a woman in Nayagarh district when she had gone to fetch water, killing her.
• In Debendranarayanpur village in Kendrapara district, a 65-year-old woman died after suspected heart attack at a cyclone shelter.

Inputs from PTI

Over Rs 1,000 crore has been released in advance for the states affected by Cyclone Fani, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally today. He said the government was with the people in times of crises.

A detailed review meeting was held and he had been given the latest updates on Cyclone Fani, Modi said as the extremely severe cyclonic storm hit Odisha today morning.

While heavy rain and winds will continue today,cyclone Fani has started weakening and will enter Bangladesh by tomorrow evening, the Indian Meteorological Department said, according to Bloomberg.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., the country's biggest fuel retailer, said it has made arrangements to ensure uninterrupted supply of petrol, diesel, LPG and jet fuel in Odisha and West Bengal that faced a category-4 cyclone.

The company said its operations are largely normal across the two eastern states and it continues to supply.

IOC has close to half of the retail fuel market share across the country.

"Adequate stock of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene and aviation fuel is available. The Corporation is also actively assisting the district administration in evacuation, rescue and relief activities," the statement said.

Source: PTI

The Airport Authority of India revised the closure time for the Kolkata airport. Flights will now be grounded between 3 p.m. today and 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Cyclone Fani has moved away from the lower state of Andhra Pradesh, according to Mrityunjay Mohapatra from the Met Department’s Delhi office. The department has issued a de-warning in the state, he told ANI.

He further said that the cyclone is expected to reduced to the wind speed of 150-160 kmph, from the current 175 kmph, in the next three hours. “By evening, it may weaken into severe cyclonic storm over extreme northern part of Odisha,” he told ANI.

Indian Navy's P-8I and Dornier are being scheduled to be launched this afternoon for undertaking aerial survey to assess the extent of impact and devastation after cyclone Fani crossing the coast, ANI reported citing the Indian Navy.

Large areas in the seaside pilgrim town of Puri and other places were submerged with water as heavy rains battered the entire coastal belt of the state, according to a PTI report.

Several trees were uprooted and thatched structures destroyed at some places including Bhubaneswar.

The cyclonic system, whose eye is around 28 km, is moving at around 30 kmph, Biswas said, adding the process of landfall is expected to be complete around 11 a.m.

Puri and neighbouring areas are experiencing wind with a speed of 175 kilometres per hour which may go up to 200 kmph.

Under the impact of the cyclone, high velocity wind is sweeping across several coastal districts like Ganjam, Puri, Khurda and Gajapati, Special Relief Commissioner BP Sethi said.

Nearly 11 lakh people have been evacuated from vulnerable and low-lying areas of at least 11 coastal district, he said, adding the evacuees have been accommodated in over 4,000 shelters, including 880 specially designed cyclone centres.

Here are the helpline numbers provided by the Ministry of Railway’s twitter handle.

Cyclone Fani will take roughly two hours to complete its landfall in Odisha, HR Biswas, director of the Met Department in Bhubaneswar said.

The landfall process of extremely severe Cyclone Fani began nearly at 8 a.m. Friday close to Puri in Odisha, with the area recording a wind speed of 175 kilometres per hour, the Indian Meteorological Department said, according to a PTI report.

Mritunjay Mohapatra, in-charge of the Cyclone Warning Division of the India Meteorological Department, said the process of landfall will continue for the next three hours.

The area along Puri is witnessing winds with a speed of 145 kilometres per hour that could reach up to 180-200 kmph, which could bring an "extensive damage", he said.

A cyclone making a landfall implies that the first arm of the cyclone has reached the land.

The eye of the cyclone, which is calm, is nearly 30 kilometres.

Flights to and from Bhubaneswar airport stand “cancelled” on May 3 due to cyclone Fani, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

The aviation regulator also said that no flight will depart or arrive at the Kolkata airport between 9.30 pm on May 3 and 6 pm on May 4.

The “extremely severe” cyclonic storm is expected to hit the Odisha coast on Friday.

Other states on the eastern coast, such as West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, are also expected to be affected.

In an advisory, the DGCA said the aforementioned flights are being “cancelled in advance in order to avoid passenger inconvenience and safety of operations”.

“Resumption of flights will be with positive clearance from respective air traffic control,” the aviation watchdog said in the advisory.

Fani is 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.

India Meteorological Department sources said it is also the first cyclonic storm of such severity to have formed in April in India’s oceanic neighbourhood in 43 years.

With inputs from PTI

A cyclonic storm equivalent of a category 4 hurricane is gathering speed and is set to hit India on Friday morning as almost one million people are being evacuated in the eastern state of Odisha. Cyclone Fani is forecast to be the worst storm since 2014.

The Navy and the coast guard have deployed ships and helicopters for relief operations, according to a government statement.

Odisha is battered by cyclonic storms every year with some intense enough to damage crops, plantations, trees, mud houses and communication and electric poles, as well as disrupt road traffic and transportation of essential goods. Severe storms also affect operations at oil and gas fields in the region and threaten lives of people and animals.

Sea levels may rise about 1.5 meters above astronomical tide, said Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, secretary at India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences. Wind speeds will likely reach as high as 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour at the time of the landfall in Odisha, he said.

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