Over 100,000 people, including coronavirus patients, moved to safety as rare cyclonic storm lashes Mumbai and suburbs.
Cyclone Nisarga, which intensified into a severe cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea, is making landfall along India’s western coast, forcing a high alert in the financial hub of Mumbai and evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
“[The] landfall process started and it will be completed during the next three hours. The northeast sector of the eye of the severe cyclonic storm Nisarga is entering into the land,” India’s meteorological department said on Wednesday.
Live TV coverage showed inky black clouds framing the sea on India’s western coastline. Trees swayed wildly, as the rain pounded the coastal towns and villages of Maharashtra.
In Mumbai, the home of Bollywood and India’s largest stock exchange, high winds whipped skyscrapers and ripped apart shanty houses near the beach.
Reporting from New Delhi, said there are many dwellings along the coastal areas which are not structurally sound to withstand the storm.
“We have seen many trees uprooted in parts of Maharashtra as India’s west coast, including the states of Goa and Gujrat, are hit by really strong winds and heavy rain and high tides even before Cyclone Nisarga made landfall,” she said.
Media reports said Nisarga is the worst cyclone to hit the region in more than 70 years, raising concerns about readiness in Mumbai and neighbouring areas.
The cyclone threatens to worsen prospects for an economic turnaround as a nine-week-long government-imposed coronavirus lockdown began to ease this week.
India’s largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, on the outskirts of Mumbai, was ordered to shut for 24 hours, the port said in a statement.
