Our live coverage of Tropical Cyclone Fani has ended. Scroll through the posts below to read more about the storm or follow CNN.com.
A video shared on Twitter shows shows Cyclone Fani battering the Indian village of Charichhak, in Odisha state.
In the video, taken and tweeted by Chinmaya Ku. Muduli, trees sway and bend under the force of roaring wind as heavy rain poured down.
The cyclone, which has been downgraded from an extremely severe cyclonic storm to a very severe cyclonic storm, is now moving north along India’s east coast. It’s expected to hit Bangladesh soon, and the country has been conducting mass evacuations all Friday.
The death toll caused by Cyclone Fani – the strongest tropical cyclone to hit India in 20 years — has risen to 7, according to Odisha Police Director General Sanjeeb Panda.
Panda adds the deaths happened across four districts in eastern Odisha state and were caused mostly by fallen trees and collapsed walls.
Cyclone Fani made landfall Friday near the city of Puri, in Odisha state, as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, lashing the country’s east coast.?The storm is expected to weaken as it moves north-northeast in the coming hours toward Kolkata, one of India’s most populous cities, and Bangladesh.
As Cyclone Fani moves north-northeast along India’s east coast, Bangladesh is bracing itself for the storm, which has left two people dead in the Indian state of Odisha.
In Bangladesh, 400,000 people on the coast have been evacuated as of Friday afternoon, said Enamur Rahman, the State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief. Authorities aim to have 2.1 million evacuated by evening.
More than 4,000 cyclone shelters have been set up for evacuees, stocked with drinking water, dry food, and medicine. 56,000 officials have been deployed for evacuation and rescue operations.
Aid agencies are also concerned for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar and are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh near the coast.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, tweeted on Wednesday that it had prepared 135 emergency response containers with sleeping mats, blankets, rope, and other resources. Key among the items are emergency tents which can be “rapidly deployed” if families’ makeshift shelters collapse during the storm.
As Cyclone Fani pummels India’s eastern coast, video is showing the storm’s punishing winds.
One video showed winds flip over a bus before cutting to another shot of a crane dangling precariously from a tall building before finally plunging to the ground.
The footage was shared on Twitter Friday afternoon by Janak Dave, bureau chief of News18 India, a CNN affiliate.
The strongest tropical cyclone to hit India in 20 years made landfall Friday, killing two people and lashing the country’s east coast with ferocious winds and torrential downpours.
As of 9 a.m. ET, it had been downgraded to a very severe cyclonic storm (down from an extremely severe cyclonic storm) as it moves north-northeast.
Here’s what you need to know about Cyclone Fani:
Cyclone Fani is so powerful, it broke windows at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology today.
Chowkidar Amritanshu Shandilya, an engineering student at the KIIT, caught the moment on video.
“Trees were blown away from the roots, heavy wind was blowing of around 150 /170 km hr. It was scary experience but also somehow exciting as we are students.”
Here’s the footage:
In 1999, the eastern state of Odisha in India was hit by a devastating cyclone that claimed more than 10,000 lives. It was a national tragedy that spurred an overhaul of India’s disaster response apparatus — the results of which have been visible as the country prepared for Cyclone Fani.
In years since the 1999 disaster, India created a new disaster response infrastructure.??
In 2005, India introduced new laws to set up what’s called the National Disaster Management Authority, a central agency charged with one thing: responding to and minimizing the impact of disasters.?
A year later, in 2006, India established a National Disaster Response Force, a specialized corps of highly trained men and women focused on disasters such as cyclones and earthquakes. It’s now comprised of almost 25,000 personnel.
These specially trained responders — working with personnel from India’s wider armed forces — have been on the ground ahead of Fani’s landfall, working to avoid a repeat of 1999.??
Working with volunteers, local officials and NGOs, they have been moving door-to-door along the coastal villages asking people to evacuate. For those who insisted on staying, they trained them on necessary precautions to be taken.?
Hundreds of shelter homes have been set up and over one million people have been evacuated.?
Cyclone Fani has been downgraded to a very severe cyclonic storm — down from an extremely severe cyclonic storm. The wind speeds have been reduced to 140-150 kmph (that’s about 86 to 93 mph).
It is expected to weaken further over the next 5 hours.
Tropical Cyclone Fani made landfall Friday sparking mass evacuations to emergency shelters and ripping buildings apart.
With sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), the storm was the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
See more photos?here.
India put military units on standby for support and rescue operations in anticipation of Tropical Cyclone Fani making landfall on Friday.
The Indian Coast Guard loaded ships with vital supplies off the coast of Odisha, and officers are now transporting food and drinking water to the town of Gopalpur.
Police in India’s eastern state of Odisha are working to clear debris, including fallen trees from roads, and move people to safety in the aftermath of the tropical cyclone making landfall there on Friday.
As forecasters warned of the strongest storm to hit India in 20 years, the country’s officials launched into action. They quickly evacuated residents at risk away from the coast – a stark contrast to preparations ahead of the devastating storm in 1999, when thousands of people lost their lives – Nikhil Kumar, CNN’s New Delhi Bureau Chief reported.
Kumar said the eastern coast of the country is often singled out as particularly vulnerable due to its low-lying terrain with a number of rivers and estuaries, increasing the risk of storm surges.
“That’s because they’ve become quite good at moving people away, at moving personnel in. There are thousands of personnel involved. The navy is involved – they are on very high alert. They have ships waiting in the area with additional materials if need be.”
Residents caught up in Cyclone Fani have been making their way to emergency relief camps.
The storm?struck near the city of Puri, in Odisha state, as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane and packing sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour).
Over the next six hours, the storm is expected to weaken as it moves north-northeast toward Kolkata, one of India’s most populous cities, and Bangladesh.
India’s government has allocated $144 million for cyclone relief to storm-hit areas in the country’s northeast, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the “central government in this moment of trouble is with you all.”
“People living in the northeastern parts of the country – hundreds of thousands of families are facing a cyclonic storm. The central government is in constant touch with the governments in Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,” he told an election rally in Rajasthan.
“The NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), the Indian coastguard, Indian army, navy with its full might is working with the administration.”
Two people have died in Odisha state since Tropical Cyclone Fani made landfall on Friday, Sanjeev Panda of the Odisha Police told CNN.
The deaths were caused by fallen trees.
Tropical Cyclone Fani is expected to be downgraded from an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” to a “very severe cyclonic storm” in a few hours.
Indian Meteorological Department Director of Forecasting M. Mohapatra told CNN it was expected to be downgraded even further – to a “severe cyclonic storm” – when it hit West Bengal later today local time.
All flights to and from Kolkata have been canceled from 3 p.m. local time Friday because of Tropical Cyclone Fani, airport director Kaushik Bhattacharjee said. Initially the airport was due to cancel flights from 9:30 p.m.
Disaster relief plans have been made for Rohingya refugee camps along the Bangladeshi border with Myanmar in case Tropical Cyclone Fani hits the vulnerable, low-lying areas, according to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
In a tweet, the UNHCR said it had almost 150 emergency response containers at refugee camps in the east of the country: “They hold family tents, sleeping mats, blankets, buckets, aqua tabs, plastic sheets, rope, and will ensure quicker response to save lives, if needed.”
Key among the items are the emergency tents which can be “rapidly deployed” should families’ makeshift shelters collapse in the strong winds.
Footage from India’s Press Information Bureau shows Tropical Cyclone Fani’s strong winds lashing the city of Puri.
Tropical Cyclone Fani is expected to move northeast up the coast toward Kolkata and Bangladesh throughout Friday and into Saturday, the Indian Meteorological Department said.
India classifies Fani as an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” – but the department said it was likely to weaken to a “very severe cyclonic storm” over the next six hours.
Makeshift camps containing hundreds of thousands of displaced Rohingya refugees along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border could face “massive destruction” from Tropical Cyclone Fani, an aid organization has warned.
Bangladesh, a low-lying country, typically suffers flooding and damage from strong winds when tropical cyclones hit, with ramshackle conditions in the refugee camps placing residents at particular risk.
Zia Choudhury, Bangladesh director for aid organization CARE, said the group was preparing “to respond fast” to potential storm damage.
The Indian Meteorological Department said the eye of Tropical Cyclone Fani is completely over land.
The first images have emerged of Tropical Cyclone Fani hitting the coastal city of Puri on Friday morning local time, with sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour (150 mph).
It’s the storm equivalent to a super typhoon or Category 4 hurricane.
All flights to and from Bhubaneswar airport in the eastern state of Odisha were canceled from midnight on Thursday. Kolkata airport will cancel flights from 9:30 p.m. local time Friday, according to India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.
About 10,000 villages and 52 towns in nine districts in the eastern state of Odisha are in the direct line of Tropical Cyclone Fani.?
India has classified Fani as an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” and deployed ships and helicopters for relief and rescue operations. Army and air force units have also been put on standby in Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh states.
Watch for more:
Fani is expected to bring large storm surges and significant wind damage near the landfall location in the eastern state of Odisha. Inland flooding is also a major threat.
Parts of eastern India and Bangladesh can expect up to 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain.
Low-lying river deltas of northeastern India are particularly vulnerable to storm-surge flooding.
The office for Odisha’s chief minister tweeted that more than 1 million people had been evacuated from vulnerable areas across the state.
More than 900 cyclone shelters have been set up to house evacuees.
What is expected to be India’s strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in 20 years?slammed into the country’s east coast Friday, with officials evacuating about 1 million people.
The season doesn’t have a defined start and end like the Atlantic hurricane season, but it does have two main periods of activity: late April to early June, and October to November.
These two periods are before and immediately after India’s southwest monsoon season. That season lasts from June through September and provides India with the vast majority of its annual rainfall.
Tropical cyclone activity during the monsoon season is extremely rare because the monsoon is characterized by high wind shear, making it difficult for tropical storms to form.
Tropical?Cyclone?Fani?made landfall near Puri, in the Indian state of Odisha, about 9:30 a.m. local time (12 a.m. ET) on Friday.
Fani brought sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour (149 mph) – the equivalent of a super typhoon or Category 4 hurricane.?
It is the strongest storm to hit India since 1999.?