Puri Gears up to Face Cyclone ‘Amphan’, to Evacuate 90k People from Vulnerable Areas

Puri: The Puri district administration is gearing up to face the potential impact of pre-monsoon cyclonic storm ‘Amphan’, the second in less than a year.

In a press briefing, Puri Collector Balwant Singh said that the administration has held a district level preparatory meeting on May 16 following the SRC advisory and IMD bulletins to deal with the situation.

“We have kept the plan ready to evacuate at least 90,000 people from the vulnerable areas to safer places if needed”, the Collector said while adding that evacuation has started.

As many as 885 shelter homes have been identified in the district to evacuate people from low-lying areas, he said.

As per the IMD bulletin, the northern part of the district is likely to be most affected. The administration has prepared the disaster mitigation measures accordingly, he said.

A total of 60 teams of various departments including National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), Fire services, and police will be engaged to handle the situation.

The Puri Collector has also urged the block development officers (BDOs) to identify people staying in thatched houses or kutcha houses who need to be evacuated to safe place.

Earlier, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had reviewed the state’s preparedness for impending cyclone Amphan with officials and Collectors of coastal districts and urged them to maintain the zero causality policy while dealing with the disaster.

The cyclonic storm ‘Amphan’ is likely to intensify into a super cyclone by Monday evening and hit the West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts as a very severe cyclone with a wind speed up to 185 km per hour on Wednesday, the Home Ministry said.

In an advisory to West Bengal and Odisha governments, the ministry said ‘Amphan’ (pronounced as UM-PUN) is now spotted over the central parts of South Bay of Bengal and the adjoining central Bay of Bengal.

It has been moving nearly northwards with a speed of 13 kmph during past six hours and lay centred at 0530 hours IST on Monday, the ministry said.