Over 10 lakh people have been evacuated from coastal districts of Odisha by Friday morning as Cyclone Fani made landfall in Puri after 8.30am on Friday. H.R. Biswas, Director of the Indian Meteorological Department in Bhubaneswar, said on Friday morning, “the impact of landfall process has started”. The landfall process is expected to last around three hours.
Fani, considered the most power storm to approach Odisha since the 'super cyclone' of 1999, had already triggered heavy rainfall in coastal Odisha on Friday morning. Fani is expected to have wind speed of up to 200-230kmph during landfall between Gopalpur and Chandabali.
According to the Chief Minister's Office, as many as 3 lakh people were evacuated from Ganjam district and over 1 lakh people were moved from Puri. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik appealed to people in coastal areas to stay indoors. All commercial establishments have been asked to suspend operations in 11 coastal districts: Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Naygarh, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore.
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The East Coast Railway has cancelled 10 more trains operating in the Bhadrak-Vizianagaram section of the Howrah Chennai Line between May 3-7. Earlier, the East Coast Railway had cancelled 147 trains operating in the section between May 1-3.
The governments of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are also bracing for heavy rains and high-speed winds as a result of Cyclone Fani. Heavy rain has been reported from Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. Storm warnings are in place for the ports of Kalingapatnam, Bheemunipatnam, Gangavaram and Visakhapatnam. The West Bengal government is operating additional bus services to Digha to evacuate tourists.
