Odisha CM seeks Centre's help as Phailin intensifies

The cyclone likely to hit the coastal town of Goplapur on Saturday night, may affect 21 districts

As the cyclone Phailin, created in the Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast, intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sought the Centre’s assistance to issue standing instructions to the defence forces to remain in readiness for rescue and relief operations as and when required.

“I would request you to kindly consider issuing standing instructions to the defence forces, especially the Air Force and the Navy to remain in readiness to extend support to the state administration in relief and rescue operation,” Patnaik wrote in a letter to A K Antony, Union defence minister.

The defence units located in Odisha and nearby locations may please be directed to provide all possible support to the civil authorities, he urged.

“Our past experience indicates that despite the state government’s preparedness, impact of a very severe cyclonic storm requires support of the defence forces to mitigate the effects of extreme weather event”, he stated in the letter.

Meanwhile, the state government has cancelled the puja holidays of its employees in all the 30 districts.

The secretariat and all government departments will remain open during the holidays, said revenue and disaster management minister S N Patro.

The cyclone, which is about 800 km away from the Odisha coast, is likely to hit the coastal town of Goplapur on Saturday night.

The collectors of the coastal district have been directed to evacuate people from the low lying areas and shift them to the cyclone shelters by evening of October 12, said P K Mohapatra, special relief commissioner.

According to the local forecast, the severe cyclonic storm Phailin, over east central Bay of Bengal, has moved north-west wards and intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm.

It lay centred at 800 kms southeast of Paradip at 1,130 hours today.

The met office said, the cyclonic storm would continue to move north-westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast between Kalingapatnam and Paradip, close to Gopalpur by evening of October 12 as a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 175-185 kmph.

The state of sea along and off Odisha coast will be rough to very rough from October 11 morning and will become phenomenal on October 12, said the met department forecast.

It predicted that the storm surge with height of around 1.5-2.0 meters above astronomical tide would inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts.

Squally winds, speed reaching 45-55 km per hour (kmph), would commence along and off Odisha coast from Friday (October 11) morning. It would increase in intensity with gale speed reaching 175-185 kmph along and off coastal districts of south Odisha at the time of landfall.

The met department advised Paradip and Gopalpur ports to hoist the Distant Cautionary Signal Number Two (DC-II) and asked the fishermen not to venture into sea.