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Cyclone Fani Set to Strike India as Hundreds of Thousands Evacuate - The New York Times

Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated parts of India’s eastern coast Thursday as a powerful cyclone moved north, bringing fears of widespread destruction in the coming hours.

Cyclone Fani was expected to hit the coast Friday with heavy rain, powerful winds and storm surge in some low-lying areas. More than 100 million people are potentially in the path of the storm, AccuWeather reported.

The India Meteorological Department classified Fani as an “extremely severe cyclonic storm,” the equivalent of a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, and said it would land with sustained winds of more than 100 miles per hour and gusts of up to 120 m.p.h.

Population density

CHINA

Fewer

people

More

people

New Delhi

NEPAL

BHUTAN

Forecasted

path

Dhaka

INDIA

Kolkata

BANGLADESH

Areas exposed

to strong wind

May 3

5:30 p.m.

May 2

5:30 p.m.

Hyderabad

Bay of Bengal

Wind radius

by speed

34 knots

Bengaluru

50

Observed path

64

Population density

Fewer

people

More

people

CHINA

NEPAL

BHUTAN

INDIA

Forecasted

path

Dhaka

Areas exposed

to strong wind

Kolkata

BANGLADESH

May 3

5:30 p.m.

May 2

5:30 p.m.

Hyderabad

Bay of Bengal

Wind radius

by speed

34 knots

Observed path

50

64

Population density

Fewer

people

More

people

CHINA

New Delhi

NEPAL

BHUTAN

INDIA

Forecasted

path

Dhaka

Kolkata

BANGLADESH

Areas exposed

to strong wind

May 3

5:30 p.m.

May 2

5:30 p.m.

Hyderabad

Bay of Bengal

Wind radius

by speed

34 knots

Bengaluru

50

Observed path

64

Note: Times on the map are shown in local time in India. | Source: Joint Typhoon Warning Center | By The New York Times

As much as eight inches of rain is forecast to fall on northern parts of the state of Andhra Pradesh and on the state of Odisha. The storm is expected to continue north, hitting the neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Bhutan, as well as parts of the Indian states of West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya.

“I appeal to everyone that the children, women, old and disabled be evacuated first,” Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha, said Wednesday, Indian media reported. “All precautions have been taken to face the cyclone. We are fully prepared to tackle the cyclone Fani.”

Mr. Patnaik said that about 800,000 people were expected to be moved to safer places by Thursday evening.

The Bay of Bengal has experienced many of the world’s deadliest tropical cyclones, the result of warm air and water temperatures producing storms that strike the large populations along the coast.

Image
A fisherman near Visakhapatnam, in northern Andhra Pradesh state, on Wednesday.CreditReuters

A cyclone in 1999 killed more than 10,000 people, most of them in Odisha, where it lingered for more than a day, flooding villages and coastal areas and blowing apart bridges and houses.

The state was much better prepared for Cyclone Phailin in 2013, the most powerful storm to hit the Indian coast since 1999. After the cyclone 20 years ago, Odisha set up a disaster management agency and invested in building shelters, strengthening coastal embankments and preparing evacuation routes, according to a World Bank report.

In 2013, about one million people were evacuated, more than twice as many as in 1999. The storm killed 45 people, and preparations helped avoid greater casualties, the World Bank said.

“All of these efforts bore fruit when Cyclone Phailin made landfall,” the report said.

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