MUMBAI'S NARROW ESCAPE

CYCLONE NISARGA WEAKENS OVER FINANCIAL CAPITAL, IMPACTS A FEW OTHER AREAS

Damage was suffered in various localities after winds and rain pummelled the city, but the full force of the storm lessened by evening

#MUMBAI Cyclone Nisarga made landfall in Raigad district, south of Mumbai, with wind speeds of up to 120 kmph on Wednesday, after thousands were evacuated in Mumbai, coastal Maharashtra and south Gujarat.

Flight operations at the Mumbai airport were to be suspended till 7 pm, but were set to begin by 6 pm.

Already down on its knees from the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Mumbai was facing a cyclone for the first time in 72 years, Adam Soebel, a professor of atmospheric science at Columbia University in USA, tweeted.

Trees and electricity poles were uprooted in Maharashtra’s Raigad district as Nisarga blew in from the Arabian Sea, making landfall at the coastal town of Alibaug at around 12.30 pm. The process would finish by 4 pm, weather officials had predicted in the afternoon.

Steeped in colonial history, Alibaug is a quaint little town located about 110 km from Mumbai, and is dotted with sandy beaches, unpolluted air, several forts and temples.

Nisarga, which is also expected to pummel the coastline of Gujarat besides Maharashtra, comes a week after Cyclone Amphan wreaked havoc in West Bengal.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) Mumbai’s deputy director general of meteorology K S Hosalikar had said earlier in the day that Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Palghar on Maharashtra’s coast will be hit with winds of up to 100 kmph to 110 kmph.Heavy rainfall was reported all along Maharashtra coast, North Maharashtra and Pune.

The Central Railway (CR) rescheduled special trains. These included five special trains departing from Mumbai which will be either diverted or regulated enroute.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Maharashtra and Gujarat chief ministers on Tuesday and assured them all possible help from the Centre.

Ten teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in parts of Maharashtra for rescue operations , Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said. Town planning authority MMRDA said nearly 150 patients at its COVID facility in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai were shifted as a precaution ahead of the cyclone. The Navy has kept five flood teams and three diving teams on stand-by in Mumbai.

As per the IMD, the landfall process started around 12.30 pm near Alibaug, 95 kms from Mumbai.

Over 40,000 people living near the coast in Mumbai were shifted to safer places, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Police also said that hundreds of people living in areas near sea shores like Colaba in South Mumbai, Worli and Dadar in Central Mumbai, and Juhu and Versova in Western Mumbai were shifted to safer places.

“The BMC shifted 10,840 people from areas near the sea coast and landslide prone locations to 35 municipal schools where temporary accommodation facilities have been set up. They were provided food and water,” the civic body said in a release. Besides, following an appeal by the BMC, nearly 30,000 people on their own moved to these temporary accommodations, it said.

The civic body also received 37 complaints of tree fall in the city, but there was no report of any injury. Three members of a family were injured when cement blocks fell on their shanty from underconstruction building in suburban Santacruz in Mumbai due to gusty winds.

No untoward incident had been reported in southern coast of Gujarat as of Wednesday evening.

Authorities have so far shifted more than 63,700 people living close to the coast in eight districts to safer places as a precautionary measure, he said. While 33,680 of them were evacuated from Valsad district, 14,400 people were evacuated in Navsari, 8,727 in Surat, 3,066 in Bhavnagar, 2,086 in Amreli, 1,2020 in Bharuch, 761 in Anand and 228 in Gir-Somnath.

All carnivorous animals in Mumbai zoo have been shifted to holding areas in their enclosures to keep them safe from rain and strong winds. Several stray and pet animals and urban wildlife like birds also faced severe hardships due to the winds and torrential rain in several areas. AGENCIES