DHAKA: Cyclone Phailin, being described as possibly the biggest cyclone ever to hit India, has triggered India’s biggest evacuation programme in 23 years, reports said Saturday.

Over 5 lakh people have been evacuated from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, the Home Secretary said.

‘Our main focus is to avoid loss of human life. So far we have evacuated 4.25 lakh people in Odisha and 1 lakh more in Andhra Pradesh,’ India’s home secretary Anil Goswami told reporters, according to NDTV.

Most of the evacuated people have been sheltered in 500 specially-built cyclone camps in the two states. Each cyclone shelter can accommodate up to 1,500 people while their ground floors may be used as cattle shelters.

Official sources said authorities have switched off power supply along the Odisha coastline and in three coastal districts in Andhra Pradesh.

In Odisha, the normal power consumption is around 2,800MW but, due to the power cut, it had come down to 1,300MW.

In Andhra Pradesh, against a normal usage of around 9,700 MW, the suspension in transmission had brought consumption down to 9,200MW.

Sources said the impact of cyclone ‘Phailin’ would be highest during the night and gradually come down from dawn.

BDST: 2009 HRS, OCT 12, 2013
RoR/SRS