Cyclone Fani: Eye of the storm that blew away Puri, Bhubaneswar

While strong winds accompanied with heavy rainfall lashed Puri between 8 am and 2 pm, winds and rainfall activity gathered pace in Bhubaneswar after 11.30 am.
Damaged trees on a Puri-Satapada road near Korua in Puri district (Photo | Biswanath Swain/EPS)
Damaged trees on a Puri-Satapada road near Korua in Puri district (Photo | Biswanath Swain/EPS)

BHUBANESWAR: The radius of superstorm Fani’s eye spanned a huge 30 km to 50 km wreaking havoc in Puri apart from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on its course. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the extremely severe cyclone’s landfall process started near Puri at 8 am on Friday before it moved towards Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Balasore. While strong winds accompanied with heavy rainfall lashed Puri between 8 am and 2 pm, winds and rainfall activity gathered pace in Bhubaneswar after 11.30 am.

“When Fani made landfall near Puri, its sustained wind speed was 175 km/hr to 185 km/hr, gusting up to 205 km/hr. It further moved north-northeastwards at a speed of over 10 km/hr,” Director, Meteorological Centre H R Biswas said. He said the wind speed was about 130 km/hr and gusting up to 140 km/hr when the extremely severe cyclonic storm passed through Bhubaneswar. Cuttack experienced heavy rains and wind speed of 110 km/hr to 120 km/hr.

Met officials said they are yet to compile the record of all the places in the State which received rainfall under the influence of the tropical storm in the last 24 hours.“As per data available with us so far, Gondia in Dhenkanal district recorded highest rainfall of 199 mm, followed by Chandikhole at 179 mm, Bhubaneswar 163 mm and Binjharpur 139.8 mm between 8.30 am on Friday and 8.30 am on Saturday,” Biswas said. The Millennium City recorded 128 mm rainfall during the period.

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