Cyclone Fani has made landfall in coastal Odisha with a speed of 185 km per hour with rain and strong winds hitting Paradip. Authorities have moved nearly one million people from low-lying areas of the state as a precautionary measure.
HR Biswas, Director of Met Dept in the state capital Bhubaneswar said that ‘extremely severe cyclone Fani’s landfall started at 8 am’ on Friday. “Some of the portion of the eye has already entered land area. It’ll take 2 more hrs to complete the landfall process. Landfall position is close to Puri. It’ll continue upto 10.30 am,” Biswas was quoted by news agency ANI.
#WATCH #CycloneFani hits Puri in Odisha. pic.twitter.com/X0HlYrS0rf
— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2019
More than 200 trains and all Odisha-bound flights have been cancelled. The Kolkata airport too was shut briefly in view of Cyclone Fani. Indian Coast Guard has positioned 34 Disaster Relief Teams at Vizag, Chennai, Paradip, Gopalpur, Haldia, Frazergunj and Kolkata besides four Coast Guard ships at Vizag and Chennai.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness for Cyclone Fani on Thursday. The meeting was attended by the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary to the PM, the Additional Principal Secretary to the PM, the Home Secretary, and other senior officials from the IMD, NDRF, NDMA and PMO.
- The Met Department said that by the time the storm enters West Bengal, the speed of cyclone Fani will dip to 100-110 kmph. But, the effect of Fani has begun in West Bengal with heavy downpour in Kolkata (News18)
- Heavy rainfall and strong winds hit Ganjam as
#FANI cyclone hits Puri coast with wind speed of above 175km/per hour (ANI) - 13 Navy aircraft are at standby in Visakhapatnam to carry out damage assessment and relief distribution requirements (ANI). Three Indian navy’s warships — Sahyadri, Ranvir and Kadmatt — with relief material and medical teams are tracking extremely severe cyclone (News18)
- The District Magistrate of Bhadrak, Odisha has tweeted an image of three women and their newborn after their delivery at a hospital.
#OdishaPrepared4Fani#CycloneFani#Bhadrak
Thank GOD, we could take them to hospital for a safe delivery. pic.twitter.com/7DrIBD8B10— GYANA DAS (@gyanadas64) May 3, 2019
- Kolkata and Bhubaneswar airports shut.