Cyclone Fani likely to hit Northeast on May 4: Reports

Guwahati: With tropical cyclonic storm Fani making its landfall in some coastal parts of Odisha on Friday morning, all agencies are on standby to tackle any kind of eventuality.

The cyclonic storm is likely to continue its course towards north and northeast direction and gradually enter West Bengal on Saturday with wind speeds of up to 100 kmph.

As per sources from the meteorological department in Guwahati, Fani is likely to hit the Northeastern states only by Saturday with a reduced wind speed varying between 30 and 40 kmph.

Met sources further revealed that Fani will have some impact over Northeast with heavy to very heavy rainfall accompanied with strong winds likely at isolated places, particularly in west Assam and Garo hills of Meghalaya. Pre-monsoon rainfall has already intensified in the region from Friday morning.

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Significantly, the disaster management authorities have conducted the largest evacuation process on Thursday with over 11 lakh people residing in the coastal districts of Odisha being shifted to safe zones.

Around 900 cyclone shelters have been made ready to house evacuees, while troops of the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and 78 teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been requisitioned for deployment.

Fani was located in the Bay of Bengal, roughly 500 km east of Chennai with a wind speed of 250 kmph and intensifying to become the strongest storm to strike the country’s coastline.