Mumbai: Very severe cyclonic storm ‘Tauktae’ with winds gusting up to 185km per hour began making landfall on the Gujarat coast Monday night. Prior to landfall, Cyclone Tauktae dumped heavy rains on this city. It has already forced the evacuation of over 1.5 lakh people in Gujarat and left two barges with 410 people on board adrift in the Arabian Sea.
Tropical storm ‘Tauktae’ which had intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm, lies close to the Gujarat coast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. “The landfall process has started and will continue during next two hours,” the IMD said.
Six persons were killed in Maharashtra’s Konkan region in separate incidents related to the severe cyclonic storm. Three sailors remained missing after two boats sank in the sea, officials said. Due to the cyclone heavy rains also lashed Karnataka killing eight people in the process.
Three persons died in Raigad district, a sailor in Sindhudurg district and two persons were killed in Navi Mumbai and Ulhasnagar in Thane district after trees fell on them. Two boats with seven sailors on board, anchored in the Anandwadi harbour in Sindhudurg district capsized, an official statement said.
Fifty four teams of the NDRF and SDRF remained deployed, an official said. At least 17 Covid-19 patients on ventilator support in the Porbandar Civil Hospital’s ICU were shifted to other facilities Monday as a precautionary measure, an official said.
The Centre has offered all help to Gujarat to deal with the cyclone (it naturally will) and asked the Army, Navy and the Air Force to remain on standby to assist the administration if the need arises, the Gujarat government said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are in touch with the state government. They have extended all possible help, said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani after holding a meeting with collectors of coastal districts which are likely to face the maximum brunt of the cyclone.
Modi called up Rupani and enquired about the state government’s preparedness to deal with the cyclone, the CMO said.
A major cyclone in Gujarat on June 9, 1998 had brought widespread death and destruction in its wake, particularly in the port town of Kandla. While official figures had then put the death toll at 1,173, adding 1,774 went missing, media reports, eyewitness and volunteer accounts suggested that this was grossly an understatement.
A leading news magazine had then claimed that at least 4,000 people had died and countless went missing as bodies were washed to the sea.
The Indian Navy on Monday deployed three of its frontline warships after receiving messages to rescue 410 people on board two barges off the Mumbai coast. The ships deployed to extend assistance to the two barges were INS Kolkata, INS Kochi and INS Talwar.
“On receipt of a request for assistance for a barge ‘P305’ adrift off Heera oil fields in Bombay high area with 273 personnel onboard, INS Kochi was swiftly sailed with a despatch for search and rescue assistance,” Indian Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said. The oil fields are around 70 km southwest of Mumbai.
“In response to another SOS received from barge ‘GAL Constructor’ with 137 people onboard about 8NM from Mumbai, INS Kolkata has been sailed to render assistance,” the Navy officer said.
A Navy spokesperson here said in the night that the rescue operations on ‘Barge 305’ were being undertaken amid extreme weather conditions.
Winds blew at 114 kmph here Monday afternoon as the cyclonic storm passed close to the Mumbai coast, civic officials said.
