ZCZC
BFF-08
INDIA-WEATHER-CYCLONE
Cyclone batters eastern India, 300,000 evacuated
NEW DELHI, Oct 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A cyclone packing winds of over 125
kilometres (80 miles) per hour and heavy rains hit eastern India early
Thursday, local media reported, with over 300,000 people evacuated from low-
lying areas.
Cyclone Titli, which intensified into a “very severe cyclonic storm” over
the Bay of Bengal, made landfall near Gopalpur on India’s east coast, the
Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.
The Odisha state government evacuated more than 300,000 people from five
coastal districts on Wednesday while local schools, colleges and childcare
centres were ordered closed and fishermen advised not to go out to sea.
“We have already evacuated three lakh (300,000) people and more may be
shifted to safer places in view of the very severe cyclone,” PTI quoted
Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as saying.
There were no deaths reported but trees and electricity poles were
uprooted, officials told PTI, with roads and makeshift mud-brick houses also
damaged.
The weather system was expected to curve to the northeast and weaken
gradually, India’s weather bureau said.
BSS/AFP/RY/08:50 hrs