Powerful Cyclone Hits India’s East Coast, Forcing Evacuation of 1.1 Million - California | Etechlooks

Powerful Cyclone Hits India’s East Coast, Forcing Evacuation of 1.1 Million – California A category 4 storm with wind speed as high as 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour made its landfall on India’s east coast, with authorities ensuring more than 1 million people are shifted to safer places. Flight and train services remain shut. Cyclone Fani is expected to be the worst storm since 2014, according to the country’s weather office. The navy and the coast guard are on high alert and ships and helicopters are on standby for rescue and relief operations. Offshore oil exploration activities have been suspended. Odisha, home to aluminum units, power plants, coal mines and the only coastal oil refinery in eastern India, is battered by cyclonic storms every year. The state was hit by a super cyclone in 1999 with wind speeds that were estimated to have reached a maximum 270 kilometers an hour leaving almost 10,000 people dead. “The eye of the cyclone has moved over the land,” said K.J. Ramesh, director general of India Meteorological Department. “Weakening of the intensity of the system is seen as per quick assessment through Doppler radars.” Neighboring Bangladesh is also on high alert. It ordered evacuation of people to cyclone shelters in 19 coastal districts, according to Disaster Management Secretary Shah Kamal. Oil Exploration Suspended Oil & Natural Gas Corp. has suspended its offshore exploration in the region and has towed five of its six drilling rigs in the Bay of Bengal to the coast as a precautionary measure. It has evacuated almost 500 people working at its fields. State-run National Aluminium Co. said a cable belt conveyor from the mines to its refinery will be stopped in the event of heavy gusts, while heavy equipment operating in the field will get proper anchoring and locking. Indian Oil Corp., which has a 15-million-tons-a-year refinery at Paradip in coastal Odisha, has taken all necessary steps to control the impact, refineries director B.V. Rama Gopal said on Friday. “We have moved some ships with crude and petroleum products to the high seas for a few days,” he said. “Paradip refinery is designed to withstand cyclones with speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour.” All trains have been cancelled on a section along the Odisha coast on the Kolkata-Chennai route until Saturday afternoon, according to the Indian Railways. Friday’s flights to and from Bhubneswar must be cancelled, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement. Cyclone Fani is likely to have a sustained wind speed of 170-180 kilometers per hour. That compares with Hudhud storm’s wind speed of 180 kilometers in 2014, according to data from the weather office. Cyclone Phailin, that battered Odisha and parts of Andhra Pradesh in 2013, saw surface wind speeds of about 215 kilometers per hour. “We have adequate food material and have tried to do our best to deal with the situation,” said Bishnupada Sethi, special relief commissioner with the Odisha government. “No damage and loss of lives reported so far.” –With assistance from Debjit Chakraborty, Sheenu Gupta, Arun Devnath, Rajesh Kumar Singh and Anurag Kotoky. Copyright 2019 Bloomberg. Want to stay up to date? Get the latest insurance news sent straight to your inbox. The post Powerful Cyclone Hits India’s East Coast, Forcing Evacuation of 1.1 Million – California appeared first on Etechlooks. http://bit.ly/2IZykdp