Cyclone Fani: Sambit Patra prays for well being of people

Following Cyclone Fani's landfall in Odisha's Puri, BJP leader Sambit Patra on Friday took to Twitter and prayed for the well being of people of the affected region.

"Everything is flying in Air ..have literally turned deaf because of wind sound ..All window panes broken ..difficult indeed ..if this is my condition in a concrete building ..I pray for the lives of millions," tweeted Patra who is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Puri.

"The process of landfall of #CycloneFani has begun ..extremely high wind speed ..heavy rain ..the harrowing sound ..reminds me of 1999 Supercyclone With folded hands I pray to Lord Almighty Jaganath ji to give us the strength to endure this," he said.

The landfall process is likely to be completed by 10.30 am, the weather office had said.

The landfall began on Friday morning at 8 am with strong winds and rain hitting Puri district. Helpline number - 1938 - has been made operational by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Indian Coast Guard has positioned 34 disaster relief teams at Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Paradip, Gopalpur, Haldia, Frazergunj and Kolkata besides four ships at Visakhapatnam and Chennai.

The system is likely to continue to move north-northeastwards, weaken gradually and emerge into Gangetic West Bengal as a "severe cyclonic storm" by the early morning of May 4.