In cyclone prone east coast, Fani may outstrip cyclone Gaja and Titli

The Indian weather service said Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani is expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon near the Puri, Odisha.

The cyclone was expected to pack sustained wind speeds of 180-190 kmph, bringing gusts of up to 200 kmph, and is equivalent in strength to a Category 3 to 4 hurricane. 

India's weather office has warned that the high-speed winds can uproot trees, flatten crops, damage homes, power and communication infrastructure along with flooding in low lying areas. 

Nearly 800,000 people in India's eastern coastal districts have been evacuated so far.

A state relief department official told AFP that 780,000 people were moved to safer places overnight from at least 13 districts of Odisha.

Some 1,000 shelters in schools and government buildings have been set up to accommodate more than a million people. 

On Thursday the storm, which reports said was the biggest to hit eastern India in nearly two decades, was brewing in the Bay of Bengal some 450 kilometres offshore and moving westwards.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Wednesday requested the Election Commission of India to relax the Model Code of Conduct in four coastal districts to enable the state take steps in view of the cyclone threat.

Four districts of coastal AP East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam have to be kept on high alert.

Cyclone Fani will be the third to hit the coastal areas after Cyclone Gaja and Cyclone Titli.

India Meteorological Office has forecast heavy rainfall in Odisha and in some parts of the state of Andhra Pradesh in the next few days. Fishing activities remained banned in the coastal areas and all the boats have been docked on the shores.

At least 60 people were killed in lightning strikes and by collapsing houses during a thunderstorm across northern and western India earlier this month.

Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are common at this time of year. They often cause deaths, mass evacuations of coastal villages, disruption of power and phone services as well as damage to crops and property in south-eastern India and Bangladesh.

Secretary of Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Mitigation, Vara Prasad said that all units including National and State Disaster Response Forces (NDRF and SDRF) were on standby, in preparation of the landfall in the state.

In southern Thiruvananthapuram city, authorities have advised residents to remain indoors after eight districts in Kerala state were issued a Yellow Alert. Heavy rains are expected and people were asked not to venture out into the sea.

Fishing activities have been banned in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and all the boats that were already in the sea were alerted to return to the shore.

The dreaded Cyclone Fani is likely to hit West Bengal on May 3 and the government agencies are expecting largescale damage across the coastal districts of the state.

The Kolkata office of Indian Meteorological Department has issued warning for districts like East and West Midnapore, South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hoogly and Kolkata.

The alert has been issued to prevent wide-scale damage to the state. The state government has cancelled leaves of all concerned departments like Disaster Management Group and put them on alert. The state police have sounded an alert for those residing in the coastal areas to go to higher ground and further away from the sea as houses may be damaged.

"The extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani over west central Bay of Bengal moved north-northeastwards with a speed of about 15 kmph and lay centred at 0530 hrs IST of May 2 over west central Bay of Bengal about 450 km south-southwest of Puri (Odisha), 230 km south-southeast of Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 650 km south-southwest of Digha (West Bengal)," the  India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its bulletin. 

According to the weather office, the storm is very likely to move north-northeastwards and cross the Odisha Coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali, around Puri, during May 3 afternoon with a maximum wind speed of 170-180 kmph.

The IMD has advised fishermen not to venture into sea along and off the Odisha coast till May 4.The sea condition will remain "phenomenal" in west central Bay of Bengal and off the north Andhra Pradesh coast till tomorrow and the northwest Bay of Bengal off Odisha and West Bengal till May 4, it said.

The Met office said that sea conditions are likely to be very rough to high off north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, along with and off south Andhra Pradesh coasts till May 4.

With severe cyclonic storm Fani set to make landfall in Odisha and parts of West Bengal on May 3, the Ministry of Defence has authorised the proactive deployment of resources from Indian Navy and Coast Guard for succour at the time of need.

"It is monitoring the developing situation in East Coast of India for Cyclone Fani and authorises the proactive deployment of resources from Indian Navy and Coast Guard for succour and assistance to those in need with minimum reaction time. Coast Guard has deployed 20 teams," the Ministry said in a statement.

In Bhubaneswar, preparations are underway by Odisha Fire Services in view of the "extremely severe" cyclonic storm. Around 50 teams of six members each have been kept on alert in the city. Due to Cyclone Fani, 22 more trains were cancelled by East Coast Railway on Wednesday, taking the total to 103 trains.