Cyclone Fani enters West Bengal

Cyclonic storm Fani has entered West Bengal crossing West Midnapur district, after leaving a trail of destruction in coastal districts of Odisha. 

The extremely severe cyclone with wind speed up to 175 kmph lashed Orisha yesterday morning. It has weakened and moved in North-East direction with the wind speed of 90 km per hour. 

The system is likely to move further north-northeastwards and hit Bangladesh by this evening. 

In West Bengal, there is no major report of any loss of life or properties so far.Under the influence of Fani widespread rainfall is reported from coastal districts of the State. 

A red has been issued in coastal areas and fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea. Several districts including East and West Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas besides, Howrah, Hooghly, Jhargram, Kolkata and the Sundarbans are likely to be hit by the storm.

In Odisha, heavy rain and high-velocity winds uprooted trees, swept away thatched huts and snapped power supply in the state. Fani is the strongest storm to hit India since 2014. Around 220 trains on Howrah-Chennai route have been cancelled keeping in view passengers' safety. Flight movement at Bhubaneswar airport is likely resuming this afternoon.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, Puri, where the cyclone first hit



the land mass, suffered huge damage. He said, power infrastructure has been destroyed and restoration of electricity is a challenging task. Mr Patnaik said work is on to restore road communication, thrown into disarray with thousands of uprooted trees blocking the way in innumerable places. The chief minister said nearly 12 lakh people were evacuated and shifted to safer locations ahead of the cyclone.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) DIG Randeep Rana said not many casualties were reported so far as precautionary measures were in place.

In Assam government has directed all district deputy commissioners and agencies to be on and take necessary measures to deal with the situation in the wake of Cyclone Fani. Fani' is expected to trigger heavy rains in the northeast. The Central Water Commission, in a bulletin, has forecast high rainfall in the west and central Assam districts today and tomorrow.

Special Secretary Land Revenue & Disaster Management, Rinzing Chewang Bhutia said that many parts of the state are likely to receive heavy rainfall accompanied by gusty winds.

All India Institute of Medical Science, AIIMS has cancelled its Post Graduate examination at Bhubaneswar centre in Odisha due to the Cyclone Fani. The exam was scheduled for tomorrow. It will now be conducted as soon as normalcy returns.