One person dies as Cyclone Fani hits India’s Odisha

Cyclone Fani remains active and it has hit the Puri coast in Odisha today. The landfall has resulted in heavy rain and strong winds lashing Odisha and parts of Andhra Pradesh. A wind speed of 145 kmph has been recorded, according to IMD.

The weather department initially forecast landfall around 5:30pm which was later revised as 10am to 12pm. Finally, it said extremely severe cyclonic storm would hit coastal Odisha near Puri between 8 and 10 am today.

Incessant rain had drenched parts of Odisha on Thursday.
The Odisha government had targeted to evacuate 11.50 lakh people from low-lying areas along 11 coastal districts by Thursday evening. But with Fani gathering speed of 12 kmph in the sea, the administration raced against time and moved 6 lakh people to safe places and cyclone shelters last evening.

The state government and disaster mitigation agencies NDRF and ODRF and fire services are put on alert to carry out rescue operation.

All flights to and from Bhubaneswar have been dumped for 24 hours starting from the May 3 midnight, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

It also issued an advance order to cancel all flights to and from Kolkata between 9.30 pm on May 3 and 6 pm on May 4.

Source: thestatesman