Lakhs moved out of superstorm path: Supercyclone landfall between Chilika, Puri

BHUBANESWAR: Lakhs of tense people hunkered down in safe places and waited anxiously for supercyclone Fani, packing 205-kmph winds and carrying copious amounts of rain, to hit the Odisha coast. Categorised as an ‘extremely severe cyclone’ Fani was 295 km from Puri on Thursday evening and is expected to hit the coast on Friday morning.

The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) of the United States predicted the landfall of the supercyclone between Chilika and Puri.

The JTWC said the landfall would be before 8 am. India Meteorological Department director K.J. Ramesh said it would hit the coast between 11 am and 4 pm near Puri.

The INCOIS data reveals that storm surge during landfall will be observed along the coast of Gopalpur to Chandabali.

Scores of teams of the national and AP and Odisha disaster management, police and fire services personnel have been placed on stand-by.

The Coast Guard and the Navy are also went on the alert.

Trains and aircraft movements have been suspended and lakhs of people have been moved to safety is what is being called as one of the largest evacuations in recent times.