Cyclone Fani makes landfall, flights canceled, people evacuated: Details here
The severe cyclonic storm Cyclone Fani made landfall in Odisha's Puri, the land of the famous Jagannath Temple, on Friday. Around 10,000 villages and more than 50 towns lie in its path. As a precautionary measure, authorities have shifted an estimated 11 lakh people to temporary shelters. Flights to/from Bhubaneswar were canceled from Thursday midnight. Here are all the details about the cyclone.
At time of landfall, Puri recorded a wind speed of 175kmph, reports said. Cyclone Fani is one of the strongest landfalling cyclones in India's recorded history. In 1999, Odisha was battered due to Super Cyclone in which 1,00,000 people died. The MeT department warned of heavy rainfall and strong winds. The wind speed during landfall could reach 200kmph. Landfall will last for five hours.
Residents of nearly 15 low-lying districts were taken to safer places. Since Thursday, people from Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam, Khordha, Cuttack and Jajpur, were shifted to storm shelter shelters. Separately, tourists were also evacuated from West Bengal's Digha, Mandarmani, Shankarpur, and Tajpur. The cyclone could affect Kolkata, East and West Medinipur, South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, and Jhargram.
As many as 223 trains were canceled due to Cyclone Fani, the Railways said on Thursday. Out of these 140 are Mail/Express trains and 83 are passenger trains. Nine trains were diverted and four others were short-routed. Passengers will get a full refund if they produce tickets within three days of the date of journey. Special trains have been launched to ferry tourists.
Apart from Odisha's capital Bhubaneshwar, operations will be affected at Kolkata airport too. Kolkata airport will remain shut from 9:30 PM on Friday till 6 PM on Saturday. Budget airlines GoAir said in a statement that flights to/from Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, and Kolkata might be affected. The airline waived off cancellation fee for passengers flying to/from these destinations between May 3 and May 5.
In a statement late Thursday night, IndiGo said, "We are accommodating passengers to the next available flights at no additional charge, waiving off cancellation fee and refunding the full amount." Passengers can track real-time updates on IndiGo's social media accounts.
Teams of Indian Navy, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force, and the Coast Guard have been kept on standby. 28 NDRF teams have been deployed in Odisha, 12 for Andhra Pradesh, and six for Kerala. Two ships and two Chetak helicopters have also been readied. Home Ministry said the helpline number 1938 is operational. Meanwhile, 06742534177 is Odisha's emergency helpline number.
