As Phailin turned into a severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal and headed towards south Odisha coast, the State Government on Thursday directed evacuation of people from shoreline and low-lying areas of seven high priority districts from Friday evening, a day before the system hits the coast.
The administrations of Ganjam, Gajapati, Nayagarh, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts have been asked to ensure that people from all ‘kutcha’ houses are shifted to safer places before the system makes its landfall near Gopalpur.
On Wednesday, the Government had put 14 districts on cyclone alert, but after assessing the movement of Phailin, which travelled about 200 km on the day, it narrowed down the maximum impact zone to seven districts. The Government also cancelled leaves and Dussehra holidays of its employees in all the 30 districts and announced that all public offices will remain open. The State Secretariat will function during Durga Puja.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who cancelled his Delhi visit in the wake of the impending cyclone, shot off a letter to Defence Minister A K Antony requesting him to keep Air Force and Naval units, located close to the State, in a state of readiness for rescue and relief operations. Choppers at Barrackpore base of the Indian Air Force have also been kept in readiness. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams landed in the State on Thursday and will proceed to their positions on Friday.
With all the attention centred on it, Phailin lay stationary at a distance of 650 km south-east off Paradip on Thursday mid-night. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the system would move north-westwards before crossing north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast between Kalingapatnam and Paradip, near Gopalpur in the shape of very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum wind speed in the range of 190-200 km per hour on Saturday evening.
The weather office said Phailin had already triggered a wind speed of about 150 km per hour over the Bay of Bengal and was gathering strength. Under the influence of this system, heavy to very heavy rain is expected at a few places with extremely heavy falls over coastal Odisha from October 12 morning. Squally wind would commence along and off the Odisha coast from Friday itself.
Director, IMD, Odisha, Sarat Chandra Sahu said storm surge with a height of 2 to 2.5 metres is predicted in four districts __ Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur during the landfall. Distant Warning No. 2 has been hoisted at Paradip and Gopalpur ports.
Anticipating the worst, the State Government has already asked the Special Relief Commissioner’s office to start readying at least 1 lakh food packets in Bhubaneswar from Friday for air-dropping.
However, despite all the confidence-building measures by the Government, a sense of panic had started to set in in the coastal areas where panic buying of essential food materials had begun. Items like flattened rice and candles were being sold at a brisk pace while the queue in petrol pump had got longer by Thursday evening.
In the Capital City, potato price had jumped to `22 per kg, up by about `10, in a single day. By Thursday evening, the Unit I market, the biggest in the City, had exhausted the commodity.
Why Odisha should worry?
* The US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) prediction has upgraded the maximum sustained wind speed during landfall on October 12 to 110 knots, or about 220 km per hour, from 90 knots in the morning.
* This will mean the impact regions will cover more areas on either side of the storm’s path. The most affected areas will be in a range of 60 km to 75 km, according to IMD.
* While the landfall point appears to have shifted southwards as per JTWC, over to Andhra Pradesh borders, the storm will move north-westwards which will be straight into large parts of Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Balangir and even Bargarh.
* The showers are likely to cause a deluge, but since Phailin is projected to move to Chhattisgarh, it will cause more rain leading to a further swell in Mahanadi river system. The State Government has already opened over 20 gates of Hirakud reservoir.