News Cyclone of Odisha 2013

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Ganjam, Odisha:  After five days of incessant rains, Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar finally saw a few patches of blue sky and witnessed a break from the downpour as the depression over the Bay of Bengal seemed to weaken today.  

Though water level has started receding, rivers in the Ganjam district in the southern part of the state were still overflowing, Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra told NDTV.

"It is a double blow for Ganjam. It was the worst hit by cyclone Phailin and now it is being pounded by flash floods. It has rained nearly three times more compared to the rains during the cyclone. I have never seen so much rain in my life during this time of the year," Mr Mohapatra said. 

Heavy downpour since five days has left lakhs of people marooned and 10 dead in the state so far. 

Rescue and evacuation operations by the Indian Air Force and the National Disaster Response Force are on in full swing, but 50,000 people are still cut off in areas inundated with water. "It's a grim situation. We evacuated 85,000 people yesterday and 15,000 are now in relief camps," Mr Mohapatra explained. 

The floods are suspected to have caused large scale damage to roads, bridges and communication and electricity infrastructure. Another big worry is decontaminating water sources as threat of an outbreak of disease is possible. Mr Mohapatra said teams have been sent to deal with the situation. 

The government, he said, has also assured that those who have lost the ration given after the cyclone will once again be supplied the relief material.

BHUBANESWAR/NEW DELHI - A cyclone heading towards the southeast coast intensified on Thursday, disaster management and weather officials said, warning tens of thousands of farmers to save their crops before the storm reaches land in the next 72 hours.

Packing wind speeds of up to 185 kph (115 mph), cyclone Phailin is moving in from the Bay of Bengal and is forecast to hit between Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Paradip in Odisha state on the evening of October 12.

The neighboring West Bengal, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands, are also expected to experience heavy rains, gale force winds and storm surges.

"The cyclone is definitely coming and it's going to be severe one, as its current speed is 100 kph (62 mph)," Shashidhar Reddy, vice chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, told a news conference.

"It is gaining an extra speed of 10 kph every three hours."

The weather office said damage to homes, power and telecoms disruptions and flooding were likely, and urged authorities to suspend fishing operations and consider evacuating coastal residents.

The Meteorological Department also called on tens of thousands of farmers in the rice and cotton-growing states to save their crops.

"Farmers have 48 hours to prepare," said director general L. S. Rathore. "We have asked them to harvest if their crops are ready, to bundle the crops together to minimise the damage or to drain out any water stagnating in their fields."

Authorities in the affected states began stocking shelters with rations, put disaster response teams on standby, and cancelled government employees' holidays as Phailin - some 800 km (500 miles) from the coastline - moved closer.

CYCLONE SEASON

The country's cyclone season runs from April to December, with severe storms often causing dozens of deaths, evacuations of tens of thousands of people from low-lying villages and wide damage to crops and property.

In 1999, a super cyclone battered the coast of Odisha for 30 hours with wind speeds reaching 300 kph. It killed 10,000 people.

The Odisha government cancelled holidays for civil servants in vulnerable areas during Dussehra and ordered relief and rescue officials to spread out.

"We will start evacuation of people from low-lying areas from the morning of Friday," said Odisha's Revenue and Disaster Management Department Minister Surya Narayan Patro.

He said food rations were sent to cyclone centres, schools and other buildings on elevated areas where people can shelter.

Disaster response units and fire personnel are on standby, control rooms are being set up and satellite phones have been sent to district heads, to ensure communications despite possible disruptions, he added.

In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, government workers, who have been on a strike for almost a week over a political decision to divide the state, came back to work in case of an emergency.

Helicopters and boats are being positioned in strategic spots and mobile service providers have been asked to make sure damage to communications towers is repaired immediately.

(Writing by Nita Bhalla; Additional reporting by Nita Bhalla in NEW DELHI)
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