New Delhi:
Nearly a million people have been evacuated from India’s eastern coast till Thursday as an "extremely severe" cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ was moving north through the Bay of Bengal. Cyclone Fani, considered by meteorologists an extremely destructive and deadly storm is expected to make landfall in Odisha’s Puri today. India Meteorological Department has warned of a “total destruction†in some districts of Odisha with major damage to roads, the uprooting of trees and electricity poles.
According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, by late Thursday, Cyclone Fani had nearly transformed into a near Category 5 hurricane as it sustained winds of about 155 miles per hour.
"CycloneFani is now the equivalent of a strong category 4 hurricane (winds 200 – 210 km/h gusts 230 km/h). as it nears the Indian state of Odisha as one of the most intense storms in 20 years," the World Meteorological Organization said.
On Thursday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting in nationa capital Delhi to review the preparedness for Cyclone Fani. The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the PM, Additional Principal Secretary to the PM, the Home Secretary and other senior officials from IMD, NDRF, NDMA and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
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