Bhubaneswar: Terming Fani as the “rarest of rare” cyclone, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Saturday said because of the rarity of its nature, the tracking and prediction of the cyclone was very challenging.
In fact, till 24 hours of landfall one was not sure about the trajectory it was going to take because of predictions of different agencies, he said.
However, he said, his government has decided to prepare itself to face all possible eventualities.
Claiming that a record of 1.2 million people were evacuated in 24 hours, he said 3.2 lakh from Ganjam and 1.3 lakh people from Puri were evacuated and 7,000 kitchens catering to 9,000 shelters were made functional overnight.
Electricity infrastructure has been totally devastated in Puri and part of Khurda including Bhubaneswar. “We have the challenge of having to set up the entire electrification afresh,” he stated.
Districts such as Cuttack, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Nayagarh and Balasore have also been affected and detail information is being collected.
As per preliminary reports, kuchha houses have been completely destroyed in Puri, part of Khurda and other districts.
“For me and my government, every life is precious. I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all the volunteers, panchayati raj institution (PRI) members, officials and staff who worked tirelessly and selflessly to get around 12 lakh people to safety,” Patnaik said.
Asked about the casualty, the CM said, “As per our latest report, it is only a single digit.”
-PNN