Bhubaneswar: A day after cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ caused devastation in at least three districts of Odisha killing at least 43 people including 12 in the capital city, the state government has launched restoration and relief work Saturday across 10,000 villages and urban areas.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm, which made landfall at Puri Friday morning between 8 am and 12 noon, unleashed copious rain and windstorm that gusted up to 200 kmph, blowing away thatched roofs of houses, swamped towns and villages, before weakening and entering West Bengal, they said.
Though the “extremely severe” cyclone weakened into a “very severe” cyclonic storm in a few hours, it flattened houses with thatched roofs and kutcha houses, uprooted scores of trees, electric poles and mobile towers in coastal Odisha, with the seaside pilgrim town of Puri being the worst hit.
Hundreds of engineers and technicians are working to restore power supply, the officials said. Work is underway to restore road communication, thrown into disarray with thousands of uprooted trees blocking the way at several places.
Men and machinery of the NDRF, the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and fire services swung into action and launched a massive restoration work to bring back normalcy, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), Bishnupada Sethi, said.
Energy Secretary Hemanth Sharma said 30 lakh power consumers have been affected by the cyclone, which threw electricity distribution infrastructure out of gear in most coastal districts. Restoration work is on in full swing, he said.
In Bhubaneswar city itself, over 10,000 electric poles have been uprooted or broken, he said, adding, efforts are on to restore power supply in 25 per cent of crucial sectors such as the airport, railway station and hospitals.
Another 25 per cent restoration work would be completed Sunday and efforts are on to restore total normalcy at the earliest, Sharma said.
The power network has been damaged in Puri, Khurda, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Balasore districts.
The Quick Action Team (QRT) of the premier naval training establishment, INS Chilka, was deployed to provide emergency assistance in clearing trees uprooted in some areas, said the sources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and discussed with him the prevailing situation in the aftermath of the cyclone’s landfall in Odisha.
The Prime Minister assured the state of continuous support. “Spoke to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik Ji and discussed the situation prevailing due to Cyclone Fani. Assured continuous support from the Central government … The entire nation stands in solidarity with those affected by the cyclone in different parts,” Modi said in a tweet.
Naveen reviewed the situation here at a high-level meeting in the morning and took an aerial survey of the affected districts in the afternoon.
Patnaik said nearly 12 lakh people have been evacuated and shifted to safer locations from 10,000 villages and 52 urban agglomerations, 24 hours ahead of the cyclone, “probably the largest such exercise at the time of a natural calamity in the country”.
A Dornier aircraft carried out aerial survey and found extensive damage to vegetation in many places around Puri. Large-scale water inundation was observed at places, particularly in low-lying areas between Puri and Chilka lake, they said.
The evacuees have been accommodated in over 4,000 shelters, including 880 specially-designed cyclone centres, he said. Cooked food is being served to them for free.
The cyclone, passed through Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore districts before entering West Bengal, the SRC said, adding, Bhubaneswar city was hit by high velocity winds of around 140 kmph.
Telecommunication lines got snapped in parts of the capital and other areas. Summer crops, orchards and plantations also suffered huge damage, he said.
Around 220 trains on the Howrah-Chennai route have been cancelled in view of passengers’ safety, an East Coast Railway (ECoR) official said. However, train services would be restored from Sunday, he added.
Fani weakens
Cyclone ‘Fani’ poses no threat to West Bengal anymore, as it weakens further before entering neighbouring Bangladesh, a senior official said Saturday.
As per forecast, there will be moderate to light rainfall, particularly in the districts adjacent to Kolkata in neighbouring Bangladesh, but the weather condition in and around Kolkata will become normal later in the day, Deputy Director General of Kolkata Regional Meteorological Centre Sanjib Bandyopadhyay told reporters.
“There is absolutely no threat from this system (cyclone Fani) to West Bengal. The very severe cyclonic storm had weakened into a severe cyclonic storm over Odisha coast before entering West Bengal,” he said. Later, the system converted into cyclonic storm and then deep depression.
Fani which is billed as the most severe cyclonic storm since the super cyclone of 1999 that claimed close to 10,000 lives and left a trail of destruction in vast swathes of Odisha, slammed into the coast Friday morning uprooting trees and sweeping away thatched huts with wind speeds reaching 175kmph to 200kmph and claimed as many as ten lives across Odisha.
The system which weakened and hit Bangladesh coast Saturday afternoon claimed at least four persons and injured 63 others in West Bengal. The toll was confirmed by Bangladesh Minister for Disaster Management Enamur Rahman in a briefing at the Secretariat, reports BDnews24. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department has however, lowered danger signals for Mongla, Payra, Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar districts.