Samikhsya Bureau
The Odisha government started evacuation process in the low lying areas along the coast by deploying National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Forece (ODRAF) and fire brigade teams as the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani advances towards the Puri coast in Odisha.
The government has deployed 28 NDRF teams and 20 ODRAF teams besides the 525 fire brigade teams for relief and rescue operation and to evacuate over eight lakh people from the vulnerable and low lying areas, and the villages located along the coast.
The evacuation process from districts has started from Thursday morning and over eight lakh people are likely to be shifted to 879 cyclone shelters and other safer places by this evening. Official sources said the evacuation process would be completed by this evening. In Puri, over 25,000 people have already been evacuated by 10 am.
Tourists have been asked to leave Puri by this evening and the hotels in the pilgrim city have been instructed by the administration not to book rooms from May 2 to May 5.
The East Coast Railways have cancelled as many as 103 trains running along the affected districts and between Howrah, Puri and Vijayanagaram. However, it arranged a special train from Puri at 12 noon to carry stranded passengers to Howrah railway station. The Odisha government has also arranged six bus services to take tourists from Puri to West Bengal.
Met sources said the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani over west-central Bay of Bengal moved north-northeastwards with a speed of about 7 km per hour in last six hours and lay centred about 430 km south-southwest of Puri , 260 km south-southeast of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and 700 km south-southwest of Digha in West Bengal.
It is very likely to move north-northeastwards and cross Odisha coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali, around Puri during afternoon on May 3 with a maximum sustained wind speed of 170- 180 kmph gusting to 200 kmph.
The cyclone, official sources said, was being tracked by Doppler Weather Radars Chennai, Vishakhapatnam and Machlipatanam.
The state government had posted 12 senior IAS officers and 11 IPS officers in the districts likely to be affected by the cyclone Fani to supervise the relief, rescue and restoration. Nine districts including Puri, Ganjam, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, jajpur, Khurda, Bhadrak and Balasore are expected to be hit by Cyclone Fani.
All educational intuitions were declared closed from today till further orders and the leave of all government employees, police personnel, doctors and paramedical staff have been cancelled and those on leave are asked to report the headquarters forthwith.
The government has already sounded alert to 17 districts which were likely to be affected by the impact of the cyclonic storm Fani as it after landfall near the Puri coast will proceed to other parts of the state before entering West Bengal.
