BackAndhra Pradesh, Odisha in Cyclone Phailin’s grip
Thousands of rescue personnel engaged in evacuation and rescue efforts in vulnerable areas of the states
Premium(Biswaranjan Rout/AP)
New Delhi: Military and civilian rescue teams fanned out in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha as a “very severe" cyclone packing windspeeds of more than 200 kilometres per hour (kmph) hurtled towards the states on Friday night, threatening to wreak havoc in coastal areas.
Cyclone Phailin, described by a forecasting outpost of the US Navy in Hawaii as a category 5 hurricane, lay centred around 450 km southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha and 448 km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and set to make landfall by evening on Saturday.
Phailin, which means sapphire in Thai, formed in the Bay of Bengal near the Andaman and Nicobar islands. It was described by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) as a “very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained windspeed of 210-220 kmph."
Thousands of military and civilian rescue personnel were engaged in evacuation efforts and positioning themselves for rescue work in vulnerable areas of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha as the cyclone moved towards the coast.
“The storm has high damage potential, considering the windspeed," IMD director general Laxman Singh Rathore told a press conference, saying it was on the verge of being upgraded to a super-cyclone, the most powerful form.
IMD had predicted rainfall at most places, heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and isolated, extremely heavy rainfall over coastal Odisha. Heavy rainfall would also cover north-coastal Andhra Pradesh and coastal areas of West Bengal.
“To be termed as a super cyclone, the wind speed is supposed to be more than 220 kmph," said the IMD’s senior scientist M. Mohapatra. “The storm is expected to hit the Odisha coast at 200-220 kmph, gusting to 235kmph."
Some experts outside India are tipping Phailin to be as strong as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of the US in 2005 and is rated as one of the deadliest natural disasters to strike that country.
“A recent satellite estimate put Phailin’s current intensity on par with 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in the United States," said Eric Holthaus, a meteorologist for Quartz, a US-based online magazine that covers global economy-related issues, told Reuters.
IMD and the National Disaster Management Authority had said Thursday that the cyclone had the potential to be very disastrous to the states, not only because of its intensity but also because of the height of the storm surge.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik held a review meeting with all stakeholders in the state earlier Friday and directed state government officials and authorities to focus on preventing casualties.
An official statement from the chief minister’s office said that by Friday night, the authorities would evacuate some 200,000 people from coastal areas and house them in special shelters and safe buildings.
“We have been preparing for the last five days. We have pressed national disaster management force, air force and army for any eventuality," said P.K. Mohapatra, special relief commissioner of Odisha.
A super cyclone that hit Odisha in 1999 packing windspeeds of 300 kmph killed more than 10,000 people in coastal districts of the state.
Defence minister A.K. Antony directed the three services—Army, Air Force and the Navy—to be in full readiness for relief and rescue operations, including providing air support in the aftermath of the approaching cyclone.
While two Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft were despatched with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and equipment to Bhubaneswar, other IAF assets were on stand-by at various bases to move at short notice.
“IAF is fully geared up to assist the state administration and has tasked its Eastern Air Command to coordinate the entire relief operation with a Task Force being positioned at Barrackpore," a statement from the defence ministry said.
The Army has also moved its command and control element to Bhubaneswar and a medical column from Gopalpur has started moving to the city. Coast Guard units in the three states have been kept on high alert so that they can respond to any search and rescue situation at sea and in coastal areas.
East Coast Railway has cancelled local passenger trains between Visakhapatnam and Bhadrak. Twenty-four train services have been cancelled in all, East Coast railway said in a statement. It has also requisitioned extra diesel engines in case of a problem in running long-distance electric trains.
Fishermen out at sea along north Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal coast were advised to return to coast. IMD has advised total suspension of fishing operations in north Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC) fears that the impending cyclone will delay the commissioning of its ambitious 15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Paradip refinery that is being built at a cost of ₹ 29,777 crore.
“The cyclone will impact our commissioning schedule as the workforce has been demobilized and evacuated for safety reasons," said a top executive at India’s largest refiner with a 65.7 mtpa capacity and a 30.5% share in the domestic refining market.
Paradip is among the new refineries being built in India and will add to the country’s stature as a refining hub.
The country is the second largest refiner in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a refining capacity of 215.066 mtpa and is ranked fourth in the world.
This is expected to increase to 232.3 mtpa at the end of the current fiscal year to March and 310.9 mtpa by 2016-17.
Nikita Mehta, Aman Malik, Utpal Bhaskar and Yogendra Kalavalapalli, AFP and Reuters contributed to this story.
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