Phailin ripped through India’s east coast leaving a trail of destruction on Sunday and up to seven people dead after one of the biggest evacuations in India’s history to minimise casualties.
As emergency teams began assessing the damage from the country’s worst cyclone in 14 years, a massive relief effort came into full swing to distribute food, clear roads and help the injured.
The worst affected area around the town of Gopalpur, where the eye of Phailin packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour (125 miles per hour) came ashore, remained cut off with emergency services rushing to reach there.
Elsewhere, roofs were blown off, trees fell across roads and debris was strewn over the streets of state capital Bhubaneswar where the winds had died down and heavy overnight rainfall had ceased.
“Our teams have fanned out on the ground, they are running searches, trying to check if there have been any casualties, check the extent of the damage,” Sandeep Rai Rathore, inspector general of the army’s National Disaster Response Force said.
Orissa State Relief Commissioner Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said that three people had been confirmed dead, while other estimates put the toll at seven.
