Cyclone Fani, which is expected to make landfall on Friday evening with destructive powers, has made it to prime time slots of international news channels and to the front pages of leading international dailies. The common thread picked by most of them is that the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal will help the system attain more destructive powers as it comes hurtling towards the coast packed with a wind speed of about 180-200kmph.
Let’s take a look at what the foreign media has to say about the developing system.
Washington Post:
The storm is expected to hit the heavily populated state of Odisha.
It is set to bring destructive winds, rain totals topping a foot and a potentially devastating storm surge.
AccuWeather reports more than 100 million people are in the path of the storm, whose winds are equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
Over 4 lakh people could find themselves underwater with a 3-6 foot storm surge. Inland flooding will be complicated by excessive rainfall draining into Mahanadi and Kuakhai rivers.
Rain totals of 8 to 12 inches will fall over a wide swath that will include Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar.
BBC:
Cyclone Fani is heading towards the state of Orissa with wind speeds in excess of 200 km/h (127 mph) and is expected to make landfall on Friday.
India’s National Disaster Management Authority has also warned people along the rest of India’s east coast, especially fishermen, not to go out to sea because the conditions are “phenomenal”.
The agency said the “total destruction of thatched houses” was possible, as well as “extensive damage” to other structures.
Indian officials say they have set up more than 850 shelters, which are thought to be able to hold almost one million people.
The navy, the coast guard and the National Disaster Response Force have all been prepared for deployment.
CNN:
Cyclone Fani is coming packed with wind storm of 195 kmph around the eye of the storm. The cyclone will get slightly stronger before it loses some of its intensity after landfall.
The system is gaining strength from the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal.
It’s equivalent to category 3 hurricane that causes widespread damage in the Atlantic seaboard.
There will be massive flooding at the eastern sea coast.
Around 20 million people are expected to feel the brunt of the storm.
Al-Jazeera:
Cyclone Fani has become the first tropical cyclone of the year to develop in the Northern Indian Ocean.
This makes it equivalent to a category three Atlantic hurricane and it is expected to strengthen further in the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal. Waters across the cyclone’s path are between 30 to 31 degrees Celsius, which is about a degree above average for the time of year.
Fani is forecast to make landfall in Odisha on Friday, with winds of around 170km/h gusting to 200km/h. This would classify it as an extremely dangerous category two systems.
Rainfall amounts are likely to be around 250 to 400mm. Some isolated locations could see more rain, bringing an increased risk of mudslides.
The last major storm to hit Odisha was Cyclone Phailin, which struck as a category four storm in 2013, killing 45 and causing more than a half a billion dollars in damage.
