Eight people were killed and several properties worth crores of rupees destroyed in separate incidents as cyclone Fani lashed the Odisha coast on Friday, the state government said.
According to reports, a teenager was killed when a tree came crashing down on him at Sakhigopal in Puri district. Flying debris from an under-construction building hit a woman in Nayagarh when she had gone to fetch water, killing her instantly. In Kendrapara district, a 65-year-old woman died after suspected heart attack at a cyclone shelter.
Cyclone Fani, one of the strongest storms to batter the Indian subcontinent in decades, uprooted trees and triggered rains as it entered West Bengal post-midnight on Saturday, hours after making landfall and causing havoc in Odisha on Friday.
A Met department official said the extremely severe cyclonic storm relatively weakened after entering coastal Odisha and transformed into “very severe” as it approached Bengal.
Regional Meteorological Centre’s Deputy Director General Sanjib Bandyopadhyay said: “The severe cyclonic storm Fani entered Bengal at 12.30 am through Odisha’s Balasore. It crossed Kharagpur packing a wind of 70-80 kmph, gusting to 90 kmph.”
The storm is now lying close to Arambagh in Hooghly district, and is 40 km west of Kolkata. “It is likely to continue further in north, north east direction, and reach the east Burdwan-Hooghly border, and through Nadia go to Bangladesh on Saturday afternoon, weakening into a cyclonic storm, after having triggered rains,” Bandyopadhyay added.
According to an agency report, Fani lashed cities and towns in coastal Bengal including Digha, Mandarmani, Tajpur, Sandehskhali and Contai while the effects of the storm could also be felt in cities like Kharagpur and Burdwan as trees were uprooted and metal hoardings gave way.
Parts of Kolkata and the suburbs also received moderate to heavy rainfall since Friday afternoon. The epicentre of the storm is expected to hit the city in the early hours on Saturday. The rains would continue till early Saturday. In the sea resort of Digha, the win speed reached 70 kmph in some areas, in Frazerganj the wind velocity was between 60 and 70 kmph. Kharagpur has so far recorded 95 mm rainfall, which will continue for the next two to three hours. “The rains will continue till early morning on Saturday, and the weather will start improving by evening,” he said.
The state electricity board has switched off power supply to prevent any untoward incident as the storm passed through a particular point in the state.
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