Cyclone Amphan, one of the worst storms over the Bay of Bengal in two decades, pummelled Odisha’s coastal districts early Wednesday morning, as howling winds blew at over 100 kilometres per hour (kmph) ripping through Paradip.
The cyclone is lying around 110 km south by southeast of the port town.
Though the ground zero of Amphan is expected to be somewhere between Sagar islands in neighbouring West Bengal and Bangladesh’s Hatia islands later on Wednesday afternoon, the cyclone, strongest over the Bay of Bengal since the 1999 supercyclone, has started causing widespread destruction in coastal Odisha, uprooting trees and electric poles in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts.
Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said though cyclone Amphan was moving at around 20kmph on Tuesday, it has slowed down to 11kmph over the last six hours. “It’s expected to move along the track that we had anticipated. It’ll make landfall sometime between Wednesday afternoon and evening,” said HR Biswas, director of the regional meteorological office in Bhubaneswar.
Paradip faced Amphan’s fury as sustained gusty winds of over 100kmph uprooted scores of trees, electric poles, blew away asbestos, and tin roofs of several houses, including government buildings. Paradip port officials said cyclone warning signal number 8 has been sounded, as the wind speed is likely to go up to 145kmph.
“Cyclone Amphan is uprooting trees and (electric) poles. I urge people not to get out of their houses until the cyclonic storm subsides. Restoration will begin after that with the help of CESU (Central Electricity Supply Utility of Orissa), ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force) & NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) teams,” tweeted Kendrapara district collector Samarth Verma.
At Paradip port, over 100 truck drivers have taken shelter inside their vehicles and waiting for the cyclonic storm to blow over. Heavy rains, measuring over 200 millimetres (mm) over the past 24 hours, have lashed Paradip.
Odisha evacuated over 1.37 lakh people from the coastal and adjoining districts into makeshift shelter homes till Tuesday evening. The authorities have lodged the evacuees while ensuring social distancing norms are maintained in a bid to prevent the spread of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
Over 200 pregnant women have been brought to safety by authorities in the coastal districts.
However, in Balasore, a Covid-19 hotspot with 119 positive cases, the authorities had a tough time in evacuating people, as they were apprehensive of contracting SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease, at the shelter homes.
IMD officials said coastal towns such as Chandbali, Balasore, and Bhubaneswar are experiencing high wind speed. Chandbali witnessed winds blowing at 74kmph and Balasore at 61kmph.
At Balasore’s Talasari beach, fishermen ran for cover as gusty winds lashed their boats.
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