By Bibhuti Mohapatro

Bhubaneswar: The extreme severe cyclonic storm Fani that will hit Odisha coast near Puri tomorrow morning is likely to affect over 10,000 villages and 52 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs),

During a review meeting on Fani, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi had informed Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik about this here on Thursday evening.

As per latest bulletin of IMD, the cyclonic storm is moving northwards with a speed of about 15 kmph and lay centred at about 275 km south-southwest of Puri (Odisha), 160 km east-southeast of Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 570 km south-southwest of Digha (West Bengal).

It is very likely to move nearly north north-eastwards and cross Odisha Coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali, around Puri during 3^rd May afternoon with maximum sustained wind speed 170-180 kmph gusting to 200 kmph.

Under its impact, Storm surge of about 1.5 meter height above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts at the time of landfall, sources in the office of SRC said.

The forecast given by IMD indicates that Ganjam, Gajapati, Khurdha, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Balasore districts of Odisha are likely to be severely affected.

# Extensive damage to all types of Kutcha houses; some damage to old badly managed pucca structures; the state is having thousands of Kutchs houses in these districts especially in Ganjam, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Puri.

# Extensive uprooting of communication and power poles in coastal and adjourning districts

# Disruption of rail/road link likely at several places in the districts of Puri, Ganjam, Khurda & Jagatsinghpur

# Extensive damage to standing crops, plantation, orchards; blowing down of palm and coconut trees; uprooting of large bushy trees expected. People in Odisha are usually cultivating paddy crops and in this month, the paddy harvest season is all most over. Therefore, there might be less impact on farmers due to cyclone.    

·        Heavy to very heavy rainfall very likely at a few places over Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Khordha, Koraput, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts with isolated extremely heavy rainfall over the districts of Gajapati, Ganjam (Intense heavy rainfall likely to commence from today mid-night)

·        Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over districts of Nayagrh, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Bodh (Intense rainfall likely to commence from today late night) and Malkangiri (Intense rain started from evening).

·        Heavy to very heavy rainfall very likely at a few places over the districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Khordha, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Balasore, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj withisolated extremely heavy rainfall over districts of Puri, Khurdha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Balasore and Mayurbhanj on May 3, 2019.

·        Heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places in the districts of Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Balasore, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj of Odisha on May 4, 2019.

The intensity of cyclone Titli that had hit Odisha in last October was much below than the Fani. But, it had caused a loss of about Rs2,765 crore and affected 60.11 lakh people. Apart from severe damage to infrastructure, the cyclone and floods had taken 57 lives. It had damaged crop in 2.6 lakh hectare of land and destroyed 56,930 houses, and killed 34,951 domestic animals, as per the estimation made by Odisha Government.

Preparedness Measures Undertaken by Odisha Govt:

To mitigate the natural disaster, the Odisha government has taken all necessary actions and deployed 18 teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), 25 units of NDRF and 525 teams of fire service personnel at various districts where the likely impact will be more, spokesperson to SRC, Sangram Mohapatra said.

Besides, two ODRAF units and three NDRF teams are on standby for immediate deployment as per requirement. Fire Service in all the districts are in readiness for immediate response, he said.

·        Collectors in the all coastal and adjoining districts of Gajapati, Nayagarh, Khordha, Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj have been advised to identify all vulnerable people living in kutcha houses or living near the coast or in low lying areas and shift them to Multipurpose cyclone/ flood shelters and other safe shelters. Out of 11.5 lakh people identified as vulnerable, 4.5 lakh have been evacuated till evening and the process is going on.

·        District Emergency Operation Centres and control rooms of other offices have been activated and functioning round the clock.

·        879 Multi-purpose cyclone/ flood shelters kept in readiness for sheltering people to be evacuated. Arrangements have already been made for free kitchen, safe drinking water, lighting, health and sanitation facilities at the shelters.

·        Two helicopters have already been requisitioned from Ministry of Defence, Govt of India for rescue and the choppers are kept ready

·        Senior IAS and IPS officers have already been assigned to districts likely to be severely affected to render all possible support to the district collectors in managing the cyclone.

·        5,97,006 numbers of polythene stocks (1,84,000 buffer stock at the state level and 4,12,541 nos. available in 30 districts) kept ready for distribution.

·        One lakh food packets are being prepared for air dropping while 55 satellite phones provided to districts and response forces are in readiness for emergency communication.