Bhubaneswar: The extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani crossed the Odisha coast in Puri between 8 am and 10 am on Friday, informed India Meteorological Department (IMD).
“Fani centered near lat 19.8 & long 85.7 at 0930 IST of today close to Puri, latest observations indicates that the eye of cyclone has completely moved into land by 1000 hrs IST. Thus the cyclone crossed odisha coast between 0800 – 1000 IST,” said an IMD bulletin.
“The current wind speed of the cyclone is 175-185 kmph gusting to 195 kmph. Puri reported maximum sustained wind speed of 142 kmph gusting to 174 kmph at 7:30 AM today,” said an IMD release.
The wind is sweeping across several coastal districts like Ganjam, Puri, Khurda and Gajapati, Jagatsinghpur. Nearly 11 lakh people have been evacuated from vulnerable and low-lying areas of at least 11 coastal district and the evacuees have been accommodated in over 4,000 shelters, including 880 cyclone centres.
