Cyclonic Storm Fani is the biggest to hit India in 20 years, prompting evacuations of 800,000 people
- Some 1,000 shelters in schools and government buildings have been set up to accommodate more than 1 million people
Nearly 800,000 people in India’s eastern coastal districts have been evacuated ahead of the expected arrival of a major cyclone packing winds of up to 200km/h per hour, officials said on Thursday.
The Indian weather service said Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani is expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon near the Hindu holy town of Puri.
A state relief department official said 780,000 people were moved to safer places overnight from at least 13 districts of Odisha state that will bear the brunt of the powerful cyclone.
“More people are being moved to safer places,” an official from the department said.
Some 1,000 shelters in schools and government buildings have been set up to accommodate more than 1 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 450km offshore and moving westwards.
The cyclone was expected to pack sustained wind speeds of 180-190km/h, bringing gusts of up to 200km/h, and is equivalent in strength to a Category 3 to 4 hurricane. It will be the fourth such storm to hit the country’s east coast in three decades.
