Manas Dasgupta
GANDHINAGAR, May 17: After causing heavy rainfall in Mumbai and some other parts of Maharashtra and Goa, cyclone Tauktae struck the Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Mahuva late on Monday evening with a velocity of over 150 kilometres per hour, chief minister Vijay Rupani said.
Speaking to media from the control room of the state disaster management authority where he said would stay put till the storm entirely pass over Gujarat by the early hours of Tuesday, Rupani said under its impact some trees had been uprooted and some other minor damages caused in the coastal areas but there were no reports of any human casualty or major damages to public or private property.
He said four coastal districts of Gir-Somnath, Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar were expected to receive very heavy rainfall while other districts in the Saurashtra coast might escape with moderate rainfall. The teams of the NDRF and army and air force had been kept on stand-by to launch relief and rescue operations in case of any exigency, he said.
He said facilities like power back-up, oxygen supply, ventilator operations and such other emergency services had been created in all the Covid hospital in the coastal districts as well as in other areas to ensure that any disruption caused by the cyclonic storm did not cost precious lives of the Covid patients.
Rupani said the government had also decided for the time being to extend night curfew and other restrictions in force in the state for three more days till Thursday pending a review. The earlier extensions were till Tuesday but since the entire administration was occupied in the cyclone-related operations, continuation of the restrictions would be reviewed separately before a final decision taken.
A large number of traders’ associations in the 36 cities and towns where night curfew and other restrictions are in force for nearly a month now had been threatening the government of violating the orders if restrictions were not withdrawn forthwith and they were allowed to resume normal functioning, at least during the day hours.
Earlier in the day, Tauktae before veering towards Gujarat, headed caused gusty winds and heavy showers in Mumbai and its neighbouring areas on Monday as the force of storm uprooted trees and disrupted local train services in the metropolis.
At least 150,000 people were on Monday evacuated from their homes in Gujarat to safe places ahead of the severe cyclonic storm Tauktae reaching the state and threatening wreak havoc.
As a precautionary measure, authorities closed ports and a main airport ahead of the cyclone’s landfall on Monday which has killed at least 12 people so far.
Among the affected states, coastal states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra have witnessed destruction and deaths due to severe storm which has uprooted trees and disrupted power supply.
“This will be the most severe cyclone to hit Gujarat in at least 20 years. This can be compared with the 1998 cyclone that hit Kandla and inflicted heavy damage,” state revenue secretary Pankaj Kumar said.
The 1998 cyclone that ravaged Gujarat killed at least 4,000 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, media reported at the time.