Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: The temple town of Puri bore the maximum brunt of the cyclonic storm Fani, which ravaged this coastal area leaving behind a trail of destruction.
According to the Met department, the winds hit the coast at a speed of 150 to 175 km per hour and even higher at some places. The eye of the cyclone was of 30 km diameter.
Large areas in the seaside pilgrim town of Puri and other places were submerged as heavy rains battered the coast, reported News 19, quoting officials.
The already rough sea in Puri became turbulent when landfall started. More than 11 lakh people have been evacuated from coastal areas in the last 24 hours. Even the calm sea was Chandipur is violent, the report added.
The Press Information Bureau posted a video to show the sheer impact of Cyclone Fani’s landfall at Puri.
“The sound and the fury: here’s what the landfall at Puri by #CycloneFani actually looked like,” tweeted the government’s press arm. The short video showed trees swaying wildly in the roaring winds and rain.
Strong winds blew away doors and windows of houses even as water entered inside, spreading panic among the people. “I have not seen anything like this in the past 60 years,” said Manju Mohanty, 78, who lives at a short distance from the Jagannath Temple. She said she almost got blown away in her balcony by a strong gust of wind.
Cyclone Fani is the strongest cyclonic storm since the Super Cyclone of 1999, which claimed left nearly 10,000 dead and devastated Odisha. The Meteorological Department says it is the first cyclonic storm of such severity in April in India’s oceanic neighbourhood in 43 years.
According to an India Today report, timing and strength are two factors that make Cyclone Fani, pronounced Foni, different from most other tropical cyclones in this time of the year. Cyclone Fani started developing around April 25 and made a landfall on Friday in Odisha on the east coast.
Traversing for nearly 10 days over the sea allowed Fani to gather such strength that it is now classified as an extremely severe cyclone. Generally, tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal have a lifespan of four-seven days. But Cyclone Fani is different.
Another aspect that makes Cyclone Fani special is its trajectory. Fani started developing around the Equator and moved upwards. It thus has had a much longer journey from its starting point to the point where it made a landfall, than other cyclones that generate in the Bay of Bengal, added the report.
