Bhubaneswar: The landfall process of extremely severe cyclonic storm FANI has already started near Puri, though the eye of the cyclone, with diameter 27 km, is still about 50 km away from the coast. Puri and nearby areas are experiencing strong winds with speed upto 175 km/hour, Odisha special Relief commissioner (SRC) B.P.Sethy said.
Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm #Fani, now a dangerous Cat. 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, remains just off the coast of India in this imagery from #Himawari8. More imagery: https://t.co/Zz3zZvHSii pic.twitter.com/yh8ROw6xPG
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) May 2, 2019
According to IMD bulletine, Landfall process is very likely to continue till noon/afternoon of tomorrow the 3rd May. After the landfall the system is very likely to continue to move north-northeastwards, weaken gradually and enter into West Bengal as a Severe Cyclonic Storm with the wind speed of 90-100 kmph gusting to 115 kmph. It is very likely to move further north- northeastwards and emerge into Bangladesh on 4thApril evening as a Cyclonic Storm with wind speed 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph. The cyclone is being tracked by Doppler Weather Radars Vishakhapatnam & Machilipatnam.
The Odisha government has initiated a large scale evacuation process involving 11 lakh people. The state government has already evacuated about 75% people to safe places, the SRC said.
Meanwhile, civil Aviation Ministry has directed closure of flight operations at Biju Pattnaik Airport in Bhubaneswar from midnight for 24 hours. Several carriers like Indigo, Spicejet, Vistara, AirIndia have cancelled their flights to the Bhubaneswar Airport. The East-Coast Railways has also cancelled hundreds of trains and diverted several other trains.