Cyclone Phailin: Coastal calamity leaves huge trail of destruction

‘We have been able to... (keep) the death toll to a bare minimum,’ vice-chairman of the national disaster management authority (NDMA) Marri Shashidhar Reddy told reporters.

The cyclone having landed on Saturday evening has now moved north westwards. It would cause rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rains at few places in Odisha during the next 12 hours. The Met department has also forecast rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over north Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, East Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim during the next 48 hours.

Gale speed of 70 to 80 kilometres per hour prevailed in the forenoon and gradually decreased to 45 to 55 kilometres per hour by Sunday evening over north Odisha and adjoining areas of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The sea continued to be rough to very rough along and off Odisha coast and very rough to high along and off north Andhra Pradesh and very rough along and off West Bengal during next 12 hours. 

According to IMD on Sunday night, Phailin weakened further turning into ‘deep depression’ with wind speed of 45-55 kmph and currently lay over northern Chhattisgarh, parts of Orissa and Jharkhand. According to M Mohapatra, scientist (Cyclone Warning Division) of the meteorology department, the ‘cyclonic storm’ has now turned to ‘deep depression’ with the wind speed of 45-55 kmph. It currently lays over northern Chhattisgarh, parts of Orissa and Jharkhand. It is expected to weaken further late tonight, he said. 

Addressing media in New Delhi, Reddy said, the cyclone caused widespread destruction and relief and rescue operations were in full swing. Reddy claimed that 685 kilometres of roads have already been cleared of trees and other debris.  

The worst affected area around the town of Gopalpur in Orissa, where the eye of Phailin packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour came ashore, remained cut off with emergency services rushing to reach there. The villagers spent the night huddled in shelters and public buildings as deafening winds flattened flimsy homes, uprooted trees and sent glass and asbestos strips flying through the air. Gopalpur saw dawn littered with uprooted trees and other debris. But despite the damage, there was a general sense of relief that things could have been a lot worse. 

With memories of a similar cyclone in 1999, which claimed 9,000 lives, still looming large, this time a massive evacuation operation, the biggest in Indian history, was undertaken and it succeeded in minimising casualties. ‘I think we have been successful in minimising the loss of precious lives,’ Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters in Bhubaneswar. 

Officials in Orissa said 860,000 people moved before the cyclone made landfall on Saturday evening, while at least another 100,000 were evacuated further south in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Residents were also evacuated from coastal regions of West Bengal state. 

Though the worst looked to be over, LS Rathore, the director general of the  IMD told mediapersons in New Delhi that heavy rainfall could be expected to fall in at least five states over the next 24 hours, including in Bihar where floods five years ago killed dozens.