CYCLONE Fani Wreaks Havoc In Odisha Killing 5 Persons, Uprooting Trees & Destroying Dwellings: It Is Likely To Move Towards Bengal Saturday Morning
FANI, the strongest Summer Cyclone, made landfall around 9.30 am IST on Friday morning near India’s Temple City Puri on the Bay Bengal causing heavy rainfall in the state’s coastal areas. It is likely to move towards coastal Bengal tomorrow morning .Heavy rainfall is also likely in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal under its influence. Massive rescue and relief operations have been taken up on a war footing by the NDRF, Indian Air Force, Navy, India Coast Guard and the local authorities. The Indian Coast Guard has positioned 34 disaster relief teams at different spots and deployed four ships to handle any exigency. Train services from eastern and northern India to South India through Bengal and Odisha have been suspended and Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Vizag Airports will remain shut till the situation normalizes. Schools and other educational institutions remained closed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of several states are personally monitoring rescue and relief operation for the people to be affected by the super cyclone called Fani,meaning the hood of a dreaded serpent. It is named by Bangladesh where Bangla is official language. Meanwhile, over 4,000 specialised personnel as part of 81 NDRF teams have been deployed to deal with the ‘extremely severe’ cyclone ‘Fani’ which is likely to affect Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal upon its landfall .Besides, Indian Navy, Cost Guard and local rescuers are on their toes. NDRF chief S N Pradhan told PTI that about 50 teams have been pre-positioned in the coastal areas of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal which are feared to be affected while another 31 teams have been kept on standby. Twenty-eight fully equipped teams have been deployed in and around Puri in Odisha as the cyclonic storm is expected to make a landfall there Friday noon, the NDRF Director General (DG) said.If total of 12 teams have been deployed in Andhra Pradesh and six in West Bengal. The rest of the teams, that comprise about 50 personnel each, have been kept on standby in these states. A Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and a commandant-rank officer have been tasked to monitor the activities of the rescue and relief teams from ground in Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar and Puri. The teams have been equipped with additional boats, satellite phones, medical equipment, medicines, tree cutters, pickup and common mobility vehicles, and other gadgets, he said.The force has also activated a round-the-clock control room at its headquarters here and a team of officials is in constant touch with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the disaster response units of the three states.Fani remained centred over West Central Bay of Bengal, about 430 km south-southwest of Puri in Odisha, 225 km south-southeast of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and 650 km south-southwest of Digha in West Bengal, as per the latest bulletin of the IMD.Fani is stated to be the severest cyclonic storm since the super cyclone of 1999 that killed about 10,000 lives and devastated a vast tract of land in India .The 1999 super cyclone had impacted an estimated10.5 million people and left over 3 lakh livestock dead (edited by Pranab Kumar Chakravarty with inputs from various sources)
