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Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power after Cyclone Tauktae hit the Gujarat coast on Monday night, one of the worst storms in the Arabian Sea believed to be due to climate change.
Cyclone-induced wind gusts at a speed of 185 km per hour tore down many tree poles and power lines, as well as mobile towers, as weakened elements moved further into the land.
An oil-powered support ship sank off the coast of Mumbai as a result of a strong wave, and 96 of the 273 people on board were missing, the Indian Navy said on Tuesday.
According to the Defense Ministry, 177 people on board were evacuated and additional operations will continue in “very difficult conditions at sea.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday, four new victims were reported, including a child crushed by a fallen wall and an 80-year-old woman killed on a fallen pillar, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said.
According to him, more than 16.5 thousand were damaged. houses, overturned 40 thousand. trees and 2.4 thousand. the villages were left without electricity.
“We have had no power or connection since the cyclone hit land,” local official Aayush Oak told AFP by phone from the Amrel coast, where between 40 and 50 mobile towers were damaged.
Although Tauktae is one of the strongest cyclones in the region in recent decades, more efficient forecasting systems than in previous years have allowed good disaster preparedness, and more than 200,000. they were evacuated from danger zones.
“Our planning over the last three days has paid off. We have managed to minimize the number of victims, ”said V. Rupani.
However, several challenges remain. Meteorologists have warned that storm dams 1 to 2 meters high can form in some areas as the weakened cyclone moves further inland and still brings heavy rain and stormy winds.
Mumbai authorities closed their airport for a few hours on Monday, urging people to stay indoors as huge waves crushed the city’s shoreline.
The COVID-19 crisis
A powerful weather system is devastating India, with the country’s healthcare system struggling to cope with a coronavirus outbreak that has claimed a record 4,329 lives in the past day.
In Mumbai, around 600 COVID-19 patients were transferred from field hospitals to “safer places.”
At that time, all COVID-19 patients were evacuated in Gujarat and treated at facilities within 5 km of the coast.
Local authorities have worked to ensure electricity is not cut off at nearly 400 special hospitals and 41 oxygen plants.
“Of the 1,400 COVID hospitals, only 16 had power outages. The supply of twelve hospitals has been restored and the remaining four are operating with the generators on, ”said V. Rupani.
However, a coronavirus-infected patient died in Mahuva before he could move in time before the storm started, doctors said.
The vaccination was also frozen in the state for two days. Mumbai decided to apply such a measure for one day.
