Cyclone wreaks havoc as India, B’desh evacuate millions

Bloomberg

Cyclone Fani barreled through the eastern parts of India on May 3, unleashing heavy rain and prompting authorities in the country and neighbouring Bangladesh to evacuate a total of more than 3.5 million people to shelters.
At least 12 people were killed as the storm swamped towns and villages, the Press Trust of India reported, citing government officials it didn’t name. The storm damaged a hospital in Odisha state’s capital Bhubaneswar and snapped phone lines in many areas. In neighbouring West Bengal, 42,000 people were evacuated, the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
“Areas around Puri are badly affected and restoration of telecommunication lines and power in the affected areas will be a priority,” said NC Marwah, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority.
While flights resumed at Kolkata and Bhubaneswar airports by Saturday afternoon, the assessment of damage will be known by Sunday evening, he said.
The cyclone’s wind speeds reached as high as 205 kilometres per hour, according to the India Meteorological Department.
Fani weakened as it headed further interior into Bangladesh, the nation’s weather office said in a bulletin.
Bangladesh remains on high alert and the government plans to evacuate as many as 2.5 million people from 19 coastal districts, Disaster Management Secretary Shah Kamal said at a media briefing in Dhaka.
Odisha, home to several aluminum units, power plants, coal mines and an oil refinery, is battered by cyclonic storms every year. The Indian state was hit by a super cyclone in 1999, leaving almost 10,000 people dead.
The state government has evacuated more than one million people to cyclone shelters, according to Bishnupada Sethi, special relief commissioner with the Odisha government.
Oil & Natural Gas Corp suspended its offshore exploration in the region and towed five of its six drilling rigs in the Bay of Bengal to the coast as a precautionary measure.
State-owned National Aluminium Co said it is reviewing its mining operations.
Indian Oil Corp, which has a 15-million-tonne-a-year refinery at Paradip in coastal Odisha, has taken all necessary steps to control the impact, refineries director BV Rama Gopal said. “Paradip refinery is designed to withstand cyclones with speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour,” he said.

Heavy Showers
Odisha and West Bengal, which are expected to bear the brunt of the storm, were forecast to get heavy showers on Saturday, according to the weather office.
The two affected states mainly grow rice during the monsoon season, with plantings beginning this month.
Most operations at all the ports on the east coast have been suspended, said Subrat Tripathy, chief executive officer of Dhamra Port in Odisha.
“We have also taken out vessels as we can’t operate under this severe weather condition.”