Cyclone Fani, one of the biggest storms to come off the Indian Ocean in recent years, made landfall in Odisha’s Puri on Friday, India’s Meteorological Department said.
The complete process of the eye of the storm crossing the coast will be over by noon, the Met office tweeted.
More than 1 millon people have been evacuated from vulnerable districts in last 24 hours. On Thursday, the Odisha government conveyed to the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), the country’s top body for handling emergency situations, that 10,000 villages and 52 towns in nine districts will be affected due to Cyclone Fani , a home ministry statement said after a meeting of the NCMC, which was headed by cabinet secretary PK Sinha.Airlines must immediately respond to concerns of passengers affected by Cyclone Fani: Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu.
In the next 3 hours, Cyclone Fani is expected to weaken with a wind speed of 150-160 km per hour, subsequently it will weaken and move north-northeastwards. By evening, it may weaken into severe cyclonic storm over extreme northern part of Odisha: IMDNo flight to and from Kolkata Airport from 3 pm today to 8 am tomorrow. Closure timing revised from earlier announced 9.30 pm today to 6 pm tomorrow, says Airports Authority of India.
Damaging houses, thousands of trees and electricity poles, uprooting trees, the eye of Fani almost 25 km in diametre is sending off wind velocity of 150 to 175 kmph and even above at some places touching 180 or more, said the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
After landfall, cyclone Fani is very likely to move north-northeastwards, weaken gradually and emerge into Gangetic West Bengal as a severed cyclonic storm and move to Bangladesh after weakening, the IMD said.Bhubaneswar, the state capital, faces power cuts from early morning, wears completely deserted look .