At least 150,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Gujarat on Monday to safe places as the strong cyclonic storm Tauktae approached the state and threatened to wreak havoc.
Authorities reopened ports and a major airport as a precautionary step ahead of the cyclone’s landfall on Monday, which has now killed at least 12 people.
Coastal states such as Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra have seen damage and deaths as a result of the heavy storm, which has uprooted trees and interrupted power supply.
“This is expected to be the most powerful cyclone to strike Gujarat in at least 20 years. This is comparable to the 1998 cyclone that struck Kandla and caused extensive damage “Pankaj Kumar, the state revenue secretary, told the media
According to media reports at the time, the 1998 cyclone that devastated Gujarat killed at least 4,000 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Cyclone Tauktae has added to the strain on local governments, who are still dealing with a heavy caseload of Covid-19 diseases and an overburdened health-care system.
With Tauktae intensifying from a very strong to an extremely severe cyclonic storm, defence minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the military’s readiness to provide humanitarian aid and emergency relief to states impacted by the cyclone on Monday, officials familiar with the development said.
Aaditya Thackeray, a Maharashtra minister, paid a visit to the BMC’s disaster management cell here on Monday to assess the situation caused by cyclonic storm Tauktae and said the authorities are doing everything possible to keep the city’s residents safe.
Due to the effects of the “extremely extreme cyclonic storm” Tauktae, which has barreled towards the Gujarat coast, strong winds and heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its surrounding areas on Monday.
According to authorities, strong winds and heavy rains uprooted trees and interrupted suburban train services throughout the city.
An official said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday to inquire about the damage caused by Cyclone Tauktae in the area.
Two people died on Sunday in separate incidents caused by cyclone Tauktae’s gusty winds, which also destroyed about 100 houses and blocked some highways due to falling trees, the CM had previously said.
The cyclonic winds had the greatest effect in Bardez taluka in North Goa and Mormugao in South Goa, he said.
According to an official, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) released an orange or “be prepared” warning for heavy rains in 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh on Monday, despite the state receiving sporadic showers during the day due to cyclone Tauktae.
The IMD also released a yellow warning for thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds of 40-50 km/h in localized areas of nine divisions until Tuesday morning.
The orange alert covers 13 districts, including Narsinghpur, Alirajpurand, and Mandsaur, and the yellow alert covers Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, and Jabalpur divisions, among others.
