The storm, Cyclone Phailin, is likely to be the strongest to hit India in at least 14 years.
'Very severe' cyclone Phailin barrels fiercely towards coastal Odisha and Andhra Pradesh at wind speeds averaging 200 km per hour and is expected to hit the coast between 6 pm and 8 pm today. A massive operation launched to evacuate more than five lakh people from the low-lying areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh is underway.
Here is a look at a few numbers to underscore the impact of the cyclone:
- 220 km: current wind speed, now just over 100 km away from Gopalpur in Odisha
- 240 km: expected speed of the storm when Phailin hits landfall
- 315 km: speed that US Navy fears it might gain upon landfall
- 1.2 crore: total number of people in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh likely to be affected
- 3 lakh: number of people evacuated in Odisha so far
- 1.2 lakh: number of people evacuated from Odisha's Ganjam district alone
- 1 lakh: number of people evacuated in Andhra Pradesh
- 5 lakh: total number of people to be evacuated in seven districts of the two states
- 1600: number of NDRF personnel on the ground in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh
- 40: Indian Air Force planes and choppers to be deployed for relief and rescue operations
- 23: cyclone shelters set up in the two states apart from over 100 shelter homes
- 6-8 pm: expected time that Phailin hits land at Gopalpur in Odisha
- 3.5 metres (almost 12 feet): expected storm surge once Phailin makes landfall
- 1999: year when Odisha was last ravaged by a super-cyclone
- 15,000: estimated number of people killed in the 1999 cyclone