Mumbai/Bhubaneswar: The worst has been averted, said the authorities as cyclone Nisarga moved inland, passing over Mumbai, on Wednesday afternoon.
As the cyclone moved closer to India on Wednesday morning, chief minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray ordered Mumbai’s residents to stay indoors for two days and shut down airport, offices and banned all gatherings. The densely-populated city with low-lying made it particularly vulnerable.
What made it worse was that Mumbai hadn’t seen a severe cyclonic storm in over 70 years.
Amid all the chaos, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation consulted the Odisha government on how to tackle the situation. It took inputs, experiences of handling cyclones to prepare an SOP and strengthen their preparedness and disaster response to face cyclone Nisarga.
The corporation on Wednesday moved at least 20,000 citizens to safe locations and another 30,000 citizens shifted on their own, following the advisory for the cyclone, which made a landfall off Alibaug coast in Raigad district and then swept through the Pune district’s city areas and urban landscape at 2.45pm on Wednesday.
“We have rescued thousands of those residing along the coast, and have kept them in temporary shelters. We are arranging food and water for them. Most of them are from the slums and Koliwadas on the west coast, including areas such as Colaba, Worli, Versova, Malad, Mahim, Juhu Khardanda and Gorai. More than 2,000 fishermen from Colaba and 150 from Worli were evacuated to safe shelters nearby. In G-South ward alone, that covers parts of Worli and Mahalaxmi, 525 people were evacuated,” civic body chief, Iqbal Chahal told the Hindustan Times.
The strong winds and heavy rain that lashed the city uprooted 117 tree, including 39 in south Mumbai, 40 in the eastern suburbs and 38 in the western suburbs, from 8am to 6pm in the evening. There were 39 incidents of short-circuits and nine house collapse – three in south Mumbai, four in the western suburbs and two in the eastern suburbs.
Odisha has been successful in keeping the loss of life and numbers of affected people to a minimum during such calamities through a very effective strategy of disaster preparation and quick responding. The state’s long-term, lauded expertise in handling disasters and the infrastructure created to mitigate it, fronted by the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority, has stood it in good stead.
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