Cyclone Tauktae claims 13 lives in Gujarat, leaves behind trail of destruction

At least 13 persons were killed and many were reported to have been injured as Cyclone Tauktae rampaged through coastal towns in Gujarat, mostly Saurashtra region, dumping heavy rains, flooding and ravaging villages and cities.

The cyclone has left a trail of destruction across the region and has hit the farmers who were harvesting summer crops including horticulture crops such as the famous Kesar variety of mango.

Meanwhile, the state government also suspended the vaccination drive against Covid-19 for one another day in view of the cyclone. Officials said that vaccination will resume from May 20.

Get live news updates on Cyclone Tauktae on DH

Briefing reporters in Gandhinagar, chief minister Vijay Rupani said 13 persons were killed due to the cyclone in the state. He said that cyclone resulted in power failure in over 5,000 villages. Over 69,000 electricity poles were uprooted and a total of 674 roads were blocked due to the storm.

Most of the casualties reported due to electric wires falling on passersby and rooftop collapse. In Nadiad and Sanand four persons including mother and daughter died after an electric wire fell on them. Similarly in Bhavnagar, a father-daughter were killed after rooftop collapsed on them.

Rupani said that four types of damages were reported including summer crops like black gram, green gram, pearl millet, horticulture crops like mango, coconut, destruction of kuchcha houses and loss of domestic animals. He assured that a survey will be conducted and the affected will be compensated as per the government norms.

Cyclone Tauktae made landfall Monday night as extremely severe storm and weakened into a severe cyclonic storm by Tuesday noon. According to the weather forecast, it is likely to recurve north-northeastwards across the state and weaken gradually into a depression over Rajasthan.

The India Meteorological Department said in a Twitter update at around 8:22 pm that "Cyclonic Storm Tauktae over Gujarat region. It is about 120 km south-southeast of Deesa (Gujarat), and 35 km west of Ahmedabad and 80 km east-northeast of Surendranagar (Gujarat). It is likely to weaken into a deep depression within 03 hours."

Earlier in the day, Rupani said that the cyclone had damaged over 16,500 houses/huts, uprooted over 40,000 trees.