The Severe Cyclonic strom ' Phailin' has hit the Odisha coast. The land fall was at 9.15 PM with squally winds at the speed of over 200 kilometers per hour blowing over the area. The sea is very rough with tidal waves up to 15 meters high reported along the coast line. After it crosses the coast, it likely to stay for six hours before moving ahead.
AIR Corespondent says, under its influence the entire coastal region of Odisha is lashed by heavy rain and squally wind. Electric poles and trees were and six persons were killed in tree fall.
The Met office predicted tides up to 3.5 meters and sea water surging up to 300 to 600 meters on land. The districts likely to experience tidal surge are Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. The administration of Balasore and Bhadrak have also been put on alert.
Odisha Special relief commissioner P K Mohapatra said 18 fishermen are trapped near Paradeep. He said personnel of Army, Navy, Air Force, NDRF and state's ODRAF have taken position at vulnerable points.
Mohapatra said,though the met office forecast say the wind speed will be within 220 kmph, steps are being takne to brace a super strom of 240 to 260 kilometer predicted by the US Navy. He said the storm surge of above three meters is of cause of concern.
Reports from Puri said that sea water gushed into Tandaghar and Keutajanga villages of Astarang and Brahmagiri blocks in the district. The Odisha government has opened a control room at Special Relief Commissioner's office at Bhubaneswar with telephone no 0674-2534177 for all information on Phailin.
In Andhra Pradesh, the state of the sea was very rough along the coasts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam besides East Godavari districts as cyclonic storm Phailin crosses the coast near Gopalpur in Odisha.
Srikakulam district adjoining Odisha is worst hit with heavy rains already lashing its coast with gale winds speed reaching 180 kmph along and off the coast.
Tidal waves rising more than 3 meters brought down protection walls on beach fronts at several places and inundated low lying areas as sea waters surged ahead eroding coastlines and entered into fishermen hamlets.
The Prime Minister has directed government agencies to extend all possible assistance to states to ensure relief and safety of people as cyclone 'Phailin' approaches east coast. Earlier, Cabinet Secretary Briefed Dr.Manmohan Singh on the arrangements made to deal with cyclone.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that so far 5 lakh and fifty thousand people have been evacuated and shifted to the safer places ahead of the Cyclonic storm PHAILIN which is expected to hit Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Briefing reporters in New Delhi, Shinde said, out of them, 4 lakh and 50 thousand people have been evacuated from Odisha and one lakh from Andhra Pradesh. He said, two naval ships have been kept ready for undertaking evacuation process. The Home Minister said, 26 teams of National Disaster Response Force have been sent to Odisha, 15 teams to Andhra Pradesh and 2 teams of this force have been sent to West Bengal.
After reviewing the situation with the collectors of coastal districts, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad that Armed forces with engineering experts, relief material and boats and additional NDRF teams are reaching Visakhaptnam.
Besides, Air Force and Naval choppers are also kept ready. He said all possible arrangements have been made to prevent human losses and reduce damages due to the Phailin. Describing the Phailin Cyclone as the biggest ever that hit the country, Kiran said the administration is not leaving any stone unturned to reduce damages as the path of cyclone may go 50 kilometres right or left.
He appealed to people to cooperate with the authorities and move to safer locations. He said some people had to be forcibly evacuated as they did not want to leave the vulnerable areas. District Collectors and the special officers have been directed to ensure all arrangement like food, water, milk and medicines at the relief camps.
In New Delhi Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth took stock of the preparedness of various Central agencies assigned to provide relief to those affected and
restore normalcy in the aftermath.Top officials from the ministries of Home, Defence, Petroleum, Telecom, Health, Food, Railways, Drinking Water and Sanitation participated in the meeting.
Preparations to deal with the
situation are in “full gear” and the various central ministries have already set up 24×7 control rooms to keep a tab on the evolving scenario.
All trains and flights from Bhuvenashwar have been cancelled.
