On October 4, the Japan Meteorological Agency began monitoring a
tropical depression that developed in the Gulf of Thailand, about 400 km (250
mi) west of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Over the next couple of days the
system moved westward within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear. As
it passed over the Malay Peninsula, it moved out of the Western Pacific Basin
on October 6. The system subsequently emerged into the Andaman Sea during the
next day, before the India Meteorological Department (IMD) started to monitor
the system as Depression BOB 04 early on October 8. During that day the system
moved towards the west-northwest into an environment for further development.
The IMD reported that the system had become a deep depression early on October
9 as it intensified and consolidated further. The United States Joint Typhoon
Warning Center subsequently initiated advisories on the depression and
designated itas Tropical Cyclone 02B, before the system slightly weakened, as
it passed near to Mayabunder in the Andaman Islands and moved into the Bay of
Bengal.After moving into the Bay of Bengal, the system quickly reorganized as
it moved along the southern edge of a subtropical ridge of high pressure. The
IMD reported that the system had intensified into a cyclonic storm and named it
Phailin.
After it was named, Phailin rapidly intensified further, and
became equivalent to a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane
wind scale (SSHWS) early on October 10, after bands of atmospheric convection
had wrapped into the systems low level circulation center and formed an eye
feature. Later that day the IMD reported that the system had become a very
severe cyclonic storm, before the JTWC reported that Phailin had become
equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on the SSHWS, after it had rapidly
intensified throughout that day. Early the next day the system underwent an
eyewall replacement cycle and formed a new eyewall which subsequently
consolidated.After the new eyewall had consolidated the system slightly intensified
further with the JTWC reporting that the system had reached its peak intensity,
with 1-minute sustained windspeeds of 260 km/h (160 mph) which made it
equivalent to a category 5 hurricane on the SSHWS. Early on October 12, the
system started to weaken with the Phailins eye starting to rapidly deteriorated
as the system moved towards the Indian coast.The system subsequently made
landfall later that day near Gopalpur in the Indian state of Odisha, at around
2130 IST (1600 UTC) as a very severe cyclonic storm.
A gigantic cyclone, one of the
strongest ever to hit the Bay of Bengal, pounded India's eastern cost with
heavy winds and rain Saturday, as nearly a million people fled the region.
More than 18 hours after the storm —
the strongest to hit India in more than a decade — made landfall in eastern
Orissa state, officials said they knew of only nine fatalities, most of them
people killed by falling branches or collapsing buildings in the rains ahead of
the cyclone.
The final death toll will almost certainly
climb, and parts of the cyclone-battered coast remain isolated by downed
communication links and blocked roads.
Hundreds of trees were uprooted before
the eye of the storm even made landfall early evening local time and flights,
trains and shipping operations were canceled and power shut down in six
districts in the coastal area.
The India Meteorological Department
said the cyclone made landfall near Gopalpur, India, with sustained winds of
124 mph — equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
Cyclone Phailin caused one of the
largest evacuation operations in Indian history, with 870,000 people moved to
higher ground in the coastal state of Orissa.
Electricity had been cut off in the
entire state of Odisha as a precaution, said Indian navy retired commodore A.K
Patnaik, in Bhubaneshwar, who was reached by phone before he shut it down to
conserve power.
Satellite images showed the cyclone
filling nearly the entire Bay of Bengal, an area larger than France that has
seen the majority of the world's worst recorded storms, including a 1999
cyclone that killed 10,000.
"If it's not a record, it's
really, really close," University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian
McNoldy told the Associated Press. "You really don't get storms stronger
than this anywhere in the world ever."
The storm slowed significantly
overnight, with some areas reporting little more than breezy drizzles by midday
Sunday, but meteorologists said parts of the region would face heavy rains and
winds for the next 24 hours.
"Its intensity is still strong,
but after crossing the coast it has weakened considerably," Sharat Sahu, a
top official with the Indian Meteorological Dept. in Orissa, told reporters.
To compare it to killer U.S. storms,
McNoldy said Phailin is nearly the size of Hurricane Katrina, which killed
1,200 people in 2005 and caused devastating flooding in New Orleans, but also
has the wind power of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which packed 165 mph winds at
landfall in Miami.
"The storm has the potential to
cause huge damage," L.S. Rathore, director-general of the Indian
Meteorlogical Department told reporters.
In Behrampur, about 7 miles inland
from where the eye of the cyclone struck, there were reports of only three
deaths early Sunday morning.
"We have stopped all cargo
operations," Paradip Port Trust Chairman Sudhanshu Shekhara Mishra told
the Press Trust of India, a local news agency. "We have set up control
rooms and are ready with a contingency plan. We have cleared all vessels.
People have been evacuated from low-lying areas."
The state has created 800 shelters as
government workers and volunteers put together food packages for relief camps.
"I don't want people to
panic," said Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha told PTI, calling
for everyone to do their part in helping relief operations.
Still, some didn't want to leave their
mud-and-thatch homes, particularly vulnerable to the storm.
More than 100,000 people from the
low-lying areas of neighboring Andhra Pradesh state had been evacuated. The sea
has already pushed inland as much as 130 feet in parts of that state, officials
said.
Some locals were at a loss.
The cyclone was one of three major
storms over Asia on Sunday. The smaller Typhoon Nari was approaching Vietnam
and Typhoon Wipha loomed over the Pacific.
At least 873,000 people in Odisha and
adjacent Andhra Pradesh spent the night in shelters, some of which had been
built after a 1999 storm killed 10,000 in the same area. Others sought safety
in schools or temples, in an exercise disaster management officials called one
of India's largest evacuations. Now
people are going back to their homes. Where their homes have been devastated,
they will continue to stay in relief camps.
Cyclone Phailin was expected to
dissipate within 36 hours, losing momentum as it headed inland after making
landfall on Saturday from the Bay of Bengal, bringing winds of more than 200
kph (125 mph) to rip up homes and tear down trees.
Further northeast, port officials said
they feared a Panama-registered cargo ship, the MV Bingo, carrying 8,000 tonnes
of iron ore with a crew of 17 Chinese and an Indonesian, had sunk on Saturday
as the storm churned across the Bay of Bengal.
Winds slowed to 90 kph (56 mph) early
on Sunday and rain eased. But large swathes of Odisha, including its capital,
Bhubaneswar, were without electricity for a second day after the storm tore
down power cables. Officials said it was too early to assess damage accurately.
Soldiers and rescue workers in
helicopters, boats and trucks fanned out across the two states, but officials
sounded confident that a major disaster had been avoided.
Under the influence of the cyclone,
several parts of Odisha like Paradip will witness heavy rainfall for next 24
hours. The Met department has also predicted heavy rainfall in Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim in the next 48 hours. It has also
issued a flood warning for Bihar.
Ganjam district in south Odisha is
believed to have been the worst-hit due to the cyclone, with extensive damage
to crops and some buildings, government sources have said. Coastal areas in
northern Andhra Pradesh however managed to escape the fury of Phailin.
The cyclone has destroyed railway
signals and high-tension electricity wires and uprooted tracks and railway
platforms at various stations, bringing rail services in the region to a halt.
"More than 100 trains have been cancelled in Bhadrak, Puri and Palasa
sections while at least 25 other trains have been diverted," East Coast
Railway spokesperson Anil Saxena said today. The airport in capital Bhubaneswar
was also closed and 10 flights were
cancelled.
Siddhartha Shankar Mishra,
Sambalpur,Odisha
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