Cyclone Fani: Odisha to evacuate more people

The Odisha government on Thursday decided to evacuate more people to safer places in view of the cyclone Fani, which was steadily moving towards the Odisha coast and will make landfall near the temple town of Puri on Friday morning.

A red alert has already been sounded in as many as 17 out of 30 districts in the state because of the tropical storm.

“Earlier it was decided to evacuate around eight lakh people in different districts. Now the government has taken a decision to evacuate 11 lakh people. The evacuation process has already begun”, officials in the state’s special relief commissioner (SRC) said.

1,82,815 people have been evacuated so far in southern Odisha's Ganjam district. The evacuation process will continue till late in the night. The evacuees are being sheltered in cyclone centres and other designated safe places.

Official sources said that the government decided to shift more people to safer places as the cyclone will be accompanied by heavy rains which were expected to trigger flash floods in different areas.

The state government has already deployed 25 NDRF and 18 ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force) teams in different districts for rescue and relief operations.

Meanwhile, the SRC office, quoting the latest weather department prediction, said that the cyclone may hit Puri on Friday morning instead of the afternoon.