AHMEDABAD: A major cyclone packing ferocious winds and threatening a destructive storm made landfall in western India on Monday, disrupting the country’s response to its devastating Covid-19 outbreak.
At least 12 people died over the weekend and on Monday in torrential rains and winds as Cyclone Tauktae, according to press reports the biggest to hit western India in 30 years, swept over the Arabian Sea with Gujarat state in its sights.
“The (Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm) Tauktae lies close to Gujarat coast. The landfall process started and will continue during next 02 hours,” the Indian Meteorological Department tweeted.
The cyclonic system has been packing winds of 155-165 kilometres per hour (95-100 miles per hour) gusting up to 185 kmph, the weather bureau added.
It warned of storm surges of up to four metres high (13 feet) in some of Gujarat’s coastal districts.
The colossal swirling system visible from space has exacerbated India’s embattled response to a huge coronavirus surge that is killing at least 4,000 people every day and pushing hospitals to breaking point.
In waterlogged and windswept Mumbai, where authorities on Monday closed the airport and urged people to stay indoors, authorities shifted 580 Covid patients “to safer locations” from three field hospitals.
Six people died and nine were injured as the storm lashed Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, the chief minister’s office said. Two navy ships were deployed to assist in search and rescue operations for a barge carrying 273 people “adrift” off Mumbai’s coast, the defence ministry added in a statement.
Around 150,000 people were evacuated in neighbouring Gujarat, where all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within five kilometres of the coast were also moved.
Authorities there were scrambling to ensure there would be no power cuts in the nearly 400 designated Covid hospitals and 41 oxygen plants in 12 coastal districts where the cyclone was expected to hit hardest.
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