Cyclone Phailin hit the Odisha coast at Gopalpur around 8.45 pm Saturday, a few hours later than expected and at wind speeds thankfully much lower than expected. Expected to hit Gopalpur coast at 200-220 kmph it hit it at 190 kmph and weakend further over the six hours that it lasted. 

Even then, Phailin packed enough punch to leave a trail of destruction in its wake. Damaged building, houses without roofs, streets littered with thousands of felled trees and all manner of debris was a common site all along the coastal regions. The eye of the storm was at Gopalpur but the Phailin touched as far as Kapaskudi in Andhra Pradesh but early warnings by the met department and carefully preventive action by both state governments ensured the loss of lives and livestock would be limited. (There was no word on this at the time of writing.) 

Director, Indian Meteorological Department, Bhubaneswar, Dr Sarat Chandra Sahu said as Ganjam district is a hilly terrain and the intensity of the cyclone will weaken. Puri district is likely to be more affected as it is plain surface. Part of Chilika Lake is likely to bear the maximum brunt.  

The cyclone moved north-westwards and the hilly terrain of Ganjam district will be a saviour and the casualties will be very less compared to 1999 super cyclone, he said. The 1999 super cyclone lay centred around Paradip in Jagatsinghpur and remained stationary for six to seven hours. Due to this the casualty went up six folds and there was no hilly terrain to block the wind speed.

Dr Sahu said there will be rain and thundershower at most places over Odisha during next 48 hours. The wind speed will reduce but there will be heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with isolated extremely heavy falls (25cm) over districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda,  Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Bhadrak and Kendrapara in coastal Odisha during next 48 hours and districts of interior Odisha from Saturday afternoon for subsequent 48 hours.

Great Danger Signal Number Ten (GD-X) for Gopalpur and Puri Ports and Great Danger Signal Number Nine (GD-IX) for Paradip and Chandbali Ports has been raised, he added.

The districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Bhadrak,Nayagarh and Kendrapara of Odisha were  affected at the time of landfall.  The state of the seea along and off Odisha coast saw a phenomenal storm surge with waves of 3.0 to 3.5 metre. They inundated the low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts.

There was extensive damage to kutcha houses, damage to old buildings and large scale disruption of power and communication lines. Rail and road traffic has been hit due to extensive flooding. There has been extensive damage to agricultural crops.

Fishing operations have been completely stalled. About five lakh people have been evacuated and moved to higher and safer places in the affected zone. The railways terminated all the trains originating from Bhubaneswar and Puri. Evening flights to from Bhubaneswar were also cancelled on Saturday. 

Even after landfall the system maintained the intensity of very severe cyclonic storm for six hours and gradually weakened into a cyclonic storm moving north-westwards across interior Odisha. These areas received heavy to extremely heavy rains.

The fate of the 18 fishermen trapped in the sea off Paradip coast remained uncertain as several attempts by Odisha government to rescue them failed. The fishermen  did not heed the cyclone warnings and ventured into the sea on Friday. The stranded fishermen had sent message to the marine police station at Paradip from their mobile phones. Coast Guard made several attempts to rescue them but failed as their vessel could not enter the area due to the extremely choooy waters. 

Indian Oil Corporation Limited personnel also could not succeed despite deploying a vessel. The Indian Air Force has now been entrusted the job but had to wait for the storm to subside leaving little hope of successful evacuation at the time of writing. 

The death toll in the pre-cyclone period has mounted to seven, while surging waters at Gopalpur created havoc as the marine police station was flooded, said Deputy Inspector General of Police, Southern Range Amitabh Thakur. One 42-year-old woman died in Bhubaneswar, one in Khalikote, one in Polsara died due to falling of tree in Ganjam district. Another man died at Garama village under Balikuda police station in Jagatsinghpur district.