A severe cyclonic storm is set to slam India’s west coast, home to major refineries and ports, prompting authorities already grappling with a savage second virus wave to evacuate people and patients to safer areas.
Cyclone Tauktae, equivalent of a category 3 hurricane, will hit the Gujarat state on Monday evening, with wind speed seen surging as high as 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The “extremely severe cyclonic storm,” which was about 145 kilometers away from the financial hub of Mumbai by midday, may bring heavy rainfall to the affected regions, damage houses and disrupt electricity supply, it said.
Authorities have taken several preventive measures to minimize the cyclone’s impact in the country, which is currently the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals and crematoriums in India are getting overwhelmed amid the world’s fastest-surging outbreak. Any disruption from the cyclone threatens to worsen the already-existing shortages of medical supplies from oxygen cylinders to vaccines.
Mumbai, which is forecast to receive very heavy rainfall and squally winds but escape the worst of the storm, has canceled coronavirus vaccinations at public centers. More than 600 patients were moved from the so-called jumbo facilities — makeshift hospitals to accommodate the surge in infections — to government-run hospitals. The city’s international airport was shut for five hours from 11 a.m. on Monday.
Almost two dozen ports on the west coast from Goa to Gujarat are put on high alert, according to a tweet by the shipping and ports ministry. Ports have been asked to take care of abandoned vessels, it said. The Gujarat Maritime Board has asked port authorities to suspend loading and unloading operations and drift all ships, including liquefied natural gas vessels and oil tankers, to high seas, according to a state government official handling port operations.
In neighboring Pakistan, weather department has advised fishermen not to venture into the sea until May 19 because of the storm. Rains, with winds of 40 to 60 kilometers per hour in about half a dozen cities in the southern Sindh province, are likely, it added.
Relief Operations
More than 6,500 fishing boats and trawlers out in the sea were shepherded back to safety by the Indian Coast Guard that has deployed ships, aircraft and relief teams along the western coast of India. Ships transiting the area are being warned through radio messages, said Aniket Singh, deputy inspector general of police and the Indian Coast Guard’s spokesman.
The Indian Air Force has deployed its fleet of heavy transport aircraft to ferry rescue teams and materials from various parts of India to the west coast. The IAF has carried over 400 people from the National Disaster Response Force and about 50 tonnes of goods, Wing Commander Ashish Moghe, spokesman of the force, said.
About 65 teams from the disaster response force have been deployed in several states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka, the agency said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that care needs to be taken to ensure least possible disruption in oxygen supply from Jamnagar in Gujarat — the site of Reliance Industries Ltd.’s massive refinery complex — that is currently India’s largest medical-grade oxygen provider from one location. Reliance said in a statement it was making efforts to ensure that production is not hindered, but it may be suspended for a few hours due to the cyclone.
India’s weather department said several places in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are expected to receive “extremely heavy” rainfall until Tuesday. Waves of as much as 3 meters above normal tides are likely to inundate some coastal areas, it said. The IMD has advised authorities to suspend fishing operations and regulate road and rail traffic.
“We are most worried about flash floods that it can trigger, creating devastation in places already battling Covid,” said Anshu Sharma, co-founder of civil society group SEEDS. “Pre-emptive moves such as evacuations need to be carried out with great care, adhering to Covid protocols such as social distancing and masking,” he said.
State-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp. said all of its 1,117 fuel stations in Gujarat were operational and had full stock of petrol and diesel.
–With assistance from Anirban Nag, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Anurag Kotoky, Jeanette Rodrigues, Faseeh Mangi and Karthikeyan Sundaram.
Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
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