Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said that a record 12 lakh people were evacuated in 24 hours in order to ensure safety to the people in view of devastating cyclone Fani.
Cyclone Fani was one of the rarest summer cyclones. It was the first one in 43 years to hit Odisha and one of the three to hit in the last 150 years, the Odisha Chief Minister told media here.
“Because of this rarity, tracking and prediction were challenging. Till 24 hours of landfall of the cyclone — one was not sure about the trajectory it was going to take,” he said.
“However, we prepared ourselves to face all the possible eventualities. This led to one of the biggest human evacuations in history – a record 1.2 million people were evacuated in 24 hours — 3.2 lakh from Ganjam and 1.3 lakh people from Puri.”
“I would like to thank all the volunteers, PRI members, officials, and staff who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to get around 1.2 million people to safety.
Naveen praised each and every one of the 4.5 crore people involved in the entire process.
‘Fani’ made landfall in Puri with a wind speed of more than 200 kmph and gusting speed of 240 kmph. It tore apart critical infrastructure, especially power, telecom and water supply.
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