DHAKA: The strongest cyclone to threaten India in more than a decade bore down on its east coast on Saturday as authorities bused and trucked tens of thousands of villagers from their mud and thatch coastal homes to government shelters inland.

With Cyclone Phailin apprehended to hit the land at Gopalpur in less than 5 hours from now, the sea has already turned turbulent forcing the fishing vessels that had ventured into the deep sea to return.

A total of 440,000 people have been evacuated from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Phailin in one of the biggest such exercises in the country’s history, the national disaster agency said Saturday.

‘The total is 4.4 lakh in all this,’ Marri Shashidhar Reddy, a top official from the National Disaster Management Authority, told a press conference, reports Hindustan Times.

Paradip Marine Fisheries Officer Ranjit Keshari Dash said there were no reports of any fishing vessel stranded in the deep sea.

The countdown for the cyclone began with most of Odisha recording incessant rainfall from mid-night even as Odisha government evacuated about 3 lakh people from low lying areas of seven districts to be affected by it.

‘War footing efforts are on to evacuate another 3 lakh before noon,’ a government officer said.

Officials cancelled Durga Puja celebrations and stockpiled emergency supplies in coastal Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states, with forecasters saying Cyclone Phailin, a massive storm that nearly covers the Bay of Bengal, will hit the region Saturday evening.

BDST: 1540 HRS, OCT 12, 2013
RoR/RIS