 "Cyclone Tauktae weakens after landfall on Gujarat coast; navy, Coast Guard rescue 314 off Mumbai coast")
Cyclone Tauktae was downgraded to a “cyclonic storm” after it made landfall in Gujarat, the India Meteorological Department said on Tuesday. The weather department predicted that it will gradually become a “deep depression” by Tuesday evening. The cyclone made landfall around 8.30 pm on Monday, triggering power outages and uprooting trees and electric poles. At least seven people were killed in Gujarat as the cyclone battered parts of the state and left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles and trees, and damaging several houses and roads on Tuesday. Over 16,000 houses were damaged, and more than 40,000 trees and over 1,000 poles uprooted due to the cyclonic storm, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said.
The landfall process of the eye of extremely severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, which hit the Gujarat coast in the Saurashtra region between Diu and Una, ended around midnight, as per the weather department. As per the latest update from IMD, the cyclonic storm is now around 50 km west-southwest of Ahmedabad in Gujarat and 60 km east-northeast of Surendranagar district.
The cyclone hit the coast between Diu and Una around 9 pm on Monday and ended around midnight, the IMD said. Also on Tuesday, the Indian Navy, which has been conducting multiple search operations, said that one of the barges that sent out an emergency rescue call has sunk. The vessel, identified as P305, had 273 people on board, of which 146 were rescued till Tuesday morning. As per Indian Express, as many as 81 are still missing and the navy authorities are involved in a search and rescue operation. Worst is over, says NDRF chief The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General SN Pradhan on Tuesday said that the ‘‘worst is over’’ and Cyclone Tauktae will “become a depression” by today evening. Pradhan said, “The cyclone has weakened into a cyclonic storm level and probably in another couple of hours it will become a cyclonic system which is a much lower category. By the time it reaches the Gujarat coast in the late evening, it would have become a depression… The worst is over” “Another good news is that the state emergency operation centre (SEOC) of Gujarat has informed us and confirmed that there have been no deaths at all,” he further said adding that there is considerable damage to property and infrastructure. “Initially there were reports in the morning of hundreds of villages losing electricity but within an hour the electricity has been restored. These are good signs of the disaster response capabilities of India and the states. It will take some more time to complete the restoration,” Pradhan said. At least 7 dead, 16,500 huts damaged in Gujarat Even as the cyclonic intensity weakened, it left behind a trail of destruction, with at least seven people losing their lives - three in Bhavnagar, and one each in Rajkot, Patan, Amreli and Valsad, officials said. The state government had shifted over two lakh people to safer locations before the cyclone hit the Gujarat coast. An official of the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) confirmed three casualties due to the cyclone, one each from Rajkot, Valsad and Bhavnagar. An electric pole fell on a woman while she was sleeping in Patan town late Monday night amid strong wind, an official from Patan A-division police station said. A woman and her daughter were killed when the wall of their house collapsed at Badeli village in Palitana taluka of Bhavnagar, a local administration official said. In another incident, a girl died after the roof of their house collapsed on four members of the family at Rajula in Amreli district on Monday night, police said. Chief Minister Rupani told reporters in Gandhinagar that 16,500 houses, mostly thatched ones, were damaged, and more than 40,000 trees and 1,081 poles, mainly of electric supply, were uprooted due to the cyclone. Also, 159 roads were damaged and 196 blocked due to different reasons, he said, adding that 45 of them were so far cleared for traffic movement. Incessant rains lash Ahmedabad Many areas of Ahmedabad city were inundated with knee-deep water following incessant downpour since afternoon as cyclone Tauktae passed northward along the district’s periphery. The city received a staggering 75.69 mm of rain between 6 am and 4 pm, said Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar. The rain intensified after 3 pm as forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), he said. “Over one inches (30 mm) of rain in the last one hour (till 4 pm) along with high-speed winds at 55 to 60 kilometres per hour. Total three inches of rain since morning,” he tweeted. “Rainfall has intensified in the last one hour. Stay put inside and be safe,” the commissioner said, adding that the civic engineering and solid waste department teams were working to clear water from flooded areas. The latest IMD update said the cyclone, centred 105 km south-southwest of Ahmedabad, was moving towards Banaskantha district in the north. Many areas of the city including Anandnagar, Bopal, SG Highway, Prahladnagar, Vejalpur and Science City witnessed waterlogging. Traffic on several roads was hindered due to fallen trees and hoardings. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has lowered the water level of the Sabarmati river to 130 feet from 134 feet so that the water in low-lying areas drains off quickly, said Kumar.
The water level of the river which passes through the city is managed by manipulating the gates of a barrage on the outskirts.
Force is increasing now with time. #AhmedabadRain #GujaratRains #CycloneTauktae lies 160 km SW of #Ahmedabad. Force will increase with time. #Gujaratcyclone #Gujarat@SkymetWeather @lovelyweather_ pic.twitter.com/L5sc5SUX5V
— Bhavik Bamania (@bhavikbamania) May 18, 2021
Impact Shorts
More Shorts#અમદાવાદ ના પરિમલ 4 રસ્તા પાસે હોર્ડિગ પડતા કાર બચી ગઈ. #AhmedabadRains #tauktaecycloneupdate pic.twitter.com/uVskuzoDRn
— Siddharth Dholakia (@SidDholakia) May 18, 2021
#AhmedabadRains Ahmedabad is facing strongest and heaviest Cyclone. Noisy Scary Gusty Wind and heavy rainfall. pic.twitter.com/Y1Kd9JH2Cv
— Priya Menon (@_freespirited) May 18, 2021
Navy, Coast Guard rescue 314 from two barges off Mumbai coast Battling extreme weather, the Indian Navy and Coast Guard have so far rescued 314 people on board two barges that went adrift in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai hours before Cyclone Tauktae made landfall on the Gujarat coast, an official said on Tuesday. Three barges and an oil rig with 707 personnel on board had gone adrift on Monday. These included accommodation barge P305 with 273 persons, cargo barge GAL Constructor with 137 personnel on board, accommodation barge SS-3 with 196 personnel on board and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig with 101 personnel on board, a navy official said. While all the 137 people on board the cargo barge GAL Constructor have been rescued, 177 of the 273 onboard P305 have been rescued so far, the official said. “Two Coast Guard Chetak helicopters operating from the Coast Guard Air station in Daman rescued personnel on board the GAL Constructor. One more Chetak helicopter was also pressed into service for the SAR operations,” he said.
#CycloneTauktae #NationFirst Update on grounded barge GAL CONSTRUCTOR. Effective coordinated rescue operations resulted in saving of all 137 precious lives from the distressed barge. Rescue mission accomplished. We Protect वयम रक्षाम: pic.twitter.com/S16FPlr7ly
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) May 18, 2021
There is no word yet on the progress of rescue operations for the accommodation barge SS-3 and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig. Images circulated by the navy showed destroyer INS Kolkata picking up two survivors overnight from the barge P305. The Navy on Tuesday said the barge has sunk.
#CycloneTauktae#Update
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) May 18, 2021
SAR Ops Barge P305.
177 personnel rescued so far.
First batch of 03 Rescuees brought in by #IndianNavy Helo.#INSKochi & #INSKolkata along with MV Offshore Energy & MV Ahalya continue with #SAR in extremely challenging circumstances.@DefenceMinIndia pic.twitter.com/Jiede7ucEu
Dramatic TV visuals also showed personnel on board what looked like a sinking rig being rescued. There was no confirmation from navy officials on the vessel’s identity. Navy ships were deployed on Monday after receipt of a request for assistance for barge ‘P305’ adrift off Heera oil fields in Bombay high area with 273 personnel on board. The oil fields are around 70 km southwest of Mumbai. Sixty persons on board the P305 barge were rescued till 11 pm and the remaining till Tuesday afternoon, the official said, adding a Navy helicopter brought three rescuees to INS Shikra this morning. INS Shikra, formerly known as INS Kunjali, is a naval air station located at Colaba in south Mumbai. Cyclone kills 3 in Mumbai, claims 5 in Thane, Palghar Cyclonic storm Tauktae claimed three lives and left 10 others injured in Mumbai over the last 24 hours when it passed close to the city coast, civic officials said on Tuesday. The sea here has been very rough due to the impact of the cyclone and the huge tidal waves on Monday dumped tonnes of garbage at chowpatties, Marine Drive and the iconic Gateway of India in Mumbai, they said. Videos of huge tidal waves lashing the Gateway of Mumbai area went viral on social media platforms where people also shared images of the trail of destruction left by the cyclonic storm at some of the prominent monuments here. Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said due to the precautions taken by the city civic body, the jumbo COVID-19 facility set up at the Bandra-Kurla Complex did not suffer many major damage, except that its cover was torn at some places and some iron sheets were blown away. The cyclonic storm claimed two lives in separate boat accidents at Mahim and Madh jetties, as per an update issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Meanwhile, five persons were killed in Thane and Palghar districts in various incidents related to cyclonic storm Tauktae, officials said on Tuesday. While two persons were killed in Vasai taluka, three others died in Thane district, they said. The deceased included a 51-year-old auto-rickshaw driver who was killed after a tree fell on his vehicle in Valiv area of Palghar district on Monday, police said. Besides, a 40-year-old man died after being crushed by cement blocks that fell from the roof of a house due to high winds in Valiv area, they said. In Thane, a 75-year-old woman was killed after a tree collapsed on her house in Kashimira area due to heavy rains, police said. With inputs from PTI
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