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                Two Dead as 'Severe' Cyclone Hits Eastern India

   by Reuters

   A cyclone that India's Meteorological Department described as "very
   severe" has knocked down power lines and hundreds of trees while making
   landfall on the country's east coast.

   Cyclone Hudhud had winds of up to 195 kilometers per hour Sunday as its
   center came ashore at the port city of Visakhapatnam.

   Rescue workers were on call ahead of the storm's arrival and 370,000
   people were evacuated.  Two people were reported dead.

   Visakhapatnam is the largest city in Andhra Pradesh and hosts a major
   Indian naval base.

   The India Meteorological Department (IMD) rated Hudhud as a very severe
   cyclonic storm that could dump more than 24.5 cm of rain on the area.

   The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), run by the
   United Nations and the European Commission, forecast peak wind speeds
   of 212 kilometers per hour. That would make Hudhud a Category 4 storm
   capable of inflicting "catastrophic" damage.

   In Pudimadaka, a coastal village where many are fishermen, locals have
   been reluctant to leave.

   "People are adamant. They are not willing to go. For the past three
   days we have been convincing them. Thank God. Now they agreed,"
   Vasantha Rayudu, a local administrative officer, said while supervising
   the evacuation work.

   "We convinced the people after holding a series of discussions with the
   village elders," said Rayudu, sitting in a small room with dozens of
   officials and policemen as huge waves crashed on the coast few meters
   away.

   As a man beat a small drum and urged people by a loudspeaker to board
   nearby buses, tea-seller V. Varalakshmi said she had packed her bags,
   but did not want to go.

   "For the past 14 years, I have been selling tea here, the sea has never
   caused any harm to us," the 52-year-old woman said as she served a
   customer.

   In New Delhi, India's Crisis Management Committee met to review
   readiness for the onslaught from Hudhud.

   "All the central agencies are fully geared up to provide necessary
   assistance," the government said in a statement, adding that 39
   National Disaster Response Force teams had been deployed to the two
   states.

   Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are common at this time of year. These
   often cause deaths, mass evacuations of coastal villages, disruption of
   power and phone services as well as damage to crops and property in
   eastern India and Bangladesh.

   Humanitarian Impact

   The cyclone was strong enough to have a "high humanitarian impact" on
   more than seven million people, the GDACS said in an updated bulletin.

   The system also forecast a storm surge of 1.7 meters. The IMD said this
   could result in flooding of low-lying coastal areas around
   Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam.

   The evacuation effort was comparable in scale to the one that preceded
   Cyclone Phailin exactly a year ago, and which was credited with
   minimizing the fatalities to 53. When a huge storm hit the same area 15
   years ago, 10,000 people died.

   "Hudhud is now the size of Phailin, though not yet as strong," said
   Eric Holthaus, a U.S.-based meteorologist at online magazine Slate.

   Authorities have been stocking cyclone shelters with dry rations, water
   purification tablets and generators. They have opened up 24-hour
   emergency control rooms and dispatched satellite phones to officials in
   charge of vulnerable districts.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/india-evacuations-cyclone-hudhud/2480693.html