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Troops stand by for super gale

Troops stood by as the authorities took maximum preventive measures ahead of a super cyclone with gale speeds of up to 260 kilometres per hour threatening to lash coastal Orissa and West Bengal today.

Official sources said the cyclone, which developed in the Bay of Bengal, now lay centred about 70 kilometres south east of Paradip with its eye towards Cuttack and was intensifying further.

The cyclone, which is likely to cross the coastal areas between Puri and Sagar Island between noon and this evening, could cause widespread damage in the coastal districts. About 20,000 families have been shifted from the orissa coast, the sources said.

Both Orissa and West Bengal have put their district authorities on maximum alert.

The authorities in West Bengal have already shifted more than 200,000 people to safer places from the coastal Sagar and Ghoramara Island. People in the low lying areas have been asked to move to higher places.

The sources said the cyclone was likely to weaken as moves over the land after crossing the coast. But it would still have a wind speed of more than 100 km per hour which could cause extensive damage of telecommunication and power connections, buildings and crops.

The meteorological office in Calcutta said the super cyclone after crossing the coastal areas of Orissa and West Bengal was likely to head towards Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had a telephonic talk with West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu last evening assured him of all help. Vajpayee had also asked the army to stand by.

Reports from Bhubaneswar said Paradip remained cut off from rest of Orissa.

The Calcutta port authorities have sounded the maximum alert and fishermen of both the states have been asked not to go to the sea.

Life was paralysed in the coastal areas of Orissa with telecommunication and power supply badly disrupted. Coastal Paradip, Jagatsinghpur and Khurda were lashed by winds with a speed of 150 km per hour, so was the capital Bhubaneswar.

Official sources said that people had been evacuated from the Sagar and Ghoramara islands in the Sunderbans in view of high tidal waves which might rise to 20 feet.

The district authorities have also evacuated people from Kakdwip, Kulpi, Diamond Harbour in South 24-Parganas, Hingalganj and the low-lying areas of the Sunderbans, Digha and other coastal areas of Midnapore in West Bengal.

The tourist town of Digha in Midnapore district looked deserted as all tourists have been forced to leave the town in overcrowded buses.

UNI

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