India set to evacuate 300,000 in path of 2nd major cyclone this year

AHMEDABAD, India - Almost 300,000 people are set to be evacuated from India's western state of Gujarat and union territory Diu. Both areas appear to be in the likely path of India's second major storm of the season, which is due in two days, authorities said on Wednesday.

Cyclone Vayu, named after the Hindi word for wind, was poised to hit the Gujarat coast early on Thursday. Winds gusting up to 170 km/h were forecast and a storm surge up to 2 meters above astronomical tides, which would inundate low-lying areas, according to the India Meteorological Department.

After India's home minister, Amit Shah, held a meeting on Tuesday with government and military officials, air force planes carried 39 National Disaster Response Force teams to the western coast. By midday they had begun evacuating more than a quarter of a million people living in towns and villages likely to bear the brunt of the storm. People will be shifted to around 700 cyclone/relief shelters, official sources said.

In addition, 34 teams of the Indian Army and the Indian Navy's diving and rescue teams and relief material have been kept standby for rendering assistance to civil authorities.

Medical teams and facilities at the Indian naval hospital ship Asvini are standby to handle medical emergencies.

In contrast, more than a million people were evacuated ahead of Cyclone Fani, which hit India's eastern coast on the Bay of Bengal in May, killing 34 people in India and 15 in neighboring Bangladesh.

Authorities in the eastern state of Odisha, where Fani made landfall, were praised for precautionary measures that likely prevented a much higher death toll.

In India's financial capital of Mumbai, police tweeted that because of the high winds, heavy rainfall and lightning expected from Vayu, people "should not venture into sea and should keep safe distance from shoreline."

Gujarat's chief minister, Vijay Rupani, requested on social media that tourists leave coastal areas by Wednesday afternoon.

Gujarat is also home to large refineries and sea ports near the storm's path.

India's biggest oil refinery, owned by Reliance Industries, is in Gujarat, though a company official said the cyclone was expected to weaken by the time it reached the Jamnagar-based refinery.

Vayu, currently barreling northwestward parallel to the Indian coast, was also expected to draw moisture away from India's much-needed annual monsoon rains.

The monsoon hit the southwestern state of Kerala last week but was several days late.

Almost half of India's land area - including more than 500 million people - is facing drought-like conditions because of deficient pre-monsoon rainfall, according to the Meteorological Department.

The summer has been particularly harsh with temperatures rising above 50 C in the northern state of Rajasthan.

Xinhua - Ap - Afp - Reuters

(China Daily 06/13/2019 page11)