Cyclone Phailin: numbers that underscore the impact

New Delhi: '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