Cyclone Fani Leaves 12 Dead In Odisha, Enters Bangladesh

Cyclone Fani is the strongest cyclonic storm since the Super Cyclone of 1999, which claimed close to 10,000 lives and battered the Odisha coast for 30 hours. 

NEW DELHI: Cyclone Fani hit West Bengal early today morning and is likely to continue in the North-east direction with a wind speed of 90km/hr.

12 people have died in Odisha so far and several areas in Puri were submerged as heavy rain battered the coast, officials said.Pradeep Kumar Rana, DIG Operations,NDRF says that cyclone Fani has weakened & is covering areas of West Bengal in the form of cyclone.

“A record of 1.2 million people were evacuated in 24 hours, 3.2 lakh from Ganjam, 1.3 lakh from Puri and almost 7000 kitchens catering to 9000 shelters were made functional overnight.Saturday talked to the governors of Odisha and West Bengal and assured central assistance to cyclone-hit states.

PM Modi also announced that he will visit Odisha on May 6 to take stock of the situation there.The prime minister assured continuous support from the central government.

This mammoth exercise involved more than 45,000 volunteers,” Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik said.CycloneFani hits West Bengal by crossing Kharagpur. It is expected to continue further in North-East direction with the wind speed of 90 km/hour.

Air India is helping people of Odisha affected by the cyclone. It says if anyone wants to send relief material to the areas affected by the storm. Air India will ship it free-of-cost.

Air India has announced additional flights today from Delhi to Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar to Delhi for passengers stranded due to the cyclonic storm.

Officials of the India Meteorological Department said Cyclone Fani has lost its severity as it moved towards Bangladesh. It will lose its cyclone status and turn into a deep depression as it enters Bangladesh.

All the fishing boats and trawlers over North Bay and deep sea have been advised to remain in shelter till further notice.

Cyclonic storm Fani has weakened and is moving towards neighbouring Bangladesh, a senior official of the regional meteorological centre says.
The UN agency for disaster reduction has commended the Indian Meteorological Department’s “almost pinpoint accuracy” of early warnings that helped authorities conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan and minimise the loss of life as extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani made landfall near the coastal city of Puri.
Bangladesh has been feeling the peripheral effect of ‘Fani’ since Friday morning. A number of villages and shoals in coastal districts have already been inundated.

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