Truth with Substance
Disaster
By Siddhartha Shankar Mishra
On October 4, the Japan Meteorological Agency began monitoring a
tropical depression that developed in the Gulf of Thailand, about 400 km
(250 mi) west of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Over the next couple of
days the system moved westward within an area of low to moderate
vertical wind shear. As it passed over the Malay Peninsula, it moved out
of the Western Pacific Basin on October 6. The system subsequently
emerged into the Andaman Sea during the next day, before the India
Meteorological Department (IMD) started to monitor the system as
Depression BOB 04 early on October 8. During that day the system moved
towards the west-northwest into an environment for further development.
The IMD reported that the system had become a deep depression early on
October 9 as it intensified and consolidated further. The United States
Joint Typhoon Warning Center subsequently initiated advisories on the
depression and designated itas Tropical Cyclone 02B, before the system
slightly weakened, as it passed near to Mayabunder in the Andaman
Islands and moved into the Bay of Bengal.After moving into the Bay of
Bengal, the system quickly reorganized as it moved along the southern
edge of a subtropical ridge of high pressure. The IMD reported that the
system had intensified into a cyclonic storm and named it Phailin.
After it was named, Phailin rapidly intensified further, and became
equivalent to a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane
wind scale (SSHWS) early on October 10, after bands of atmospheric
convection had wrapped into the systems low level circulation center and
formed an eye feature. Later that day the IMD reported that the system
had become a very severe cyclonic storm, before the JTWC reported that
Phailin had become equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on the SSHWS,
after it had rapidly intensified throughout that day. Early the next day
the system underwent an eyewall replacement cycle and formed a new
eyewall which subsequently consolidated.After the new eyewall had
consolidated the system slightly intensified further with the JTWC
reporting that the system had reached its peak intensity, with 1-minute
sustained windspeeds of 260 km/h (160 mph) which made it equivalent to a
category 5 hurricane on the SSHWS. Early on October 12, the system
started to weaken with the Phailins eye starting to rapidly deteriorated
as the system moved towards the Indian coast.The system subsequently
made landfall later that day near Gopalpur in the Indian state of Odisha,
at around 2130 IST (1600 UTC) as a very severe cyclonic storm.
A gigantic cyclone, one of the strongest ever to hit the Bay of Bengal,
pounded India's eastern cost with heavy winds and rain Saturday, as
nearly a million people fled the region.
More than 18 hours after the storm — the strongest to hit India in more
than a decade — made landfall in eastern Orissa state, officials said
they knew of only nine fatalities, most of them people killed by falling
branches or collapsing buildings in the rains ahead of the cyclone.
Death toll limited to 18 as record 10 lakh people evacuated in three
days.The final death toll will almost certainly climb.
The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone made landfall near
Gopalpur, India, with sustained winds of 124 mph — equivalent to a
Category 3 hurricane.
Electricity had been cut off in the entire state of Odisha as a
precaution, said Indian navy retired commodore A.K Patnaik, in
Bhubaneshwar, who was reached by phone before he shut it down to
conserve power.
Satellite images showed the cyclone filling nearly the entire Bay of
Bengal, an area larger than France that has seen the majority of the
world's worst recorded storms, including a 1999 cyclone that killed
10,000.
"If it's not a record, it's really, really close," University of Miami
hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy told the Associated Press. "You
really don't get storms stronger than this anywhere in the world ever."
To compare it to killer U.S. storms, McNoldy said Phailin is nearly the
size of Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,200 people in 2005 and caused
devastating flooding in New Orleans, but also has the wind power of
1992's Hurricane Andrew, which packed 165 mph winds at landfall in
Miami.
"We have stopped all cargo operations,Paradip Port Trust Chairman
SudhanshuShekhara Mishra told .
The state has created 800 shelters as government workers and volunteers
put together food packages for relief camps.
Still, some didn't want to leave their mud-and-thatch homes,
particularly vulnerable to the storm.
More than 100,000 people from the low-lying areas of neighboring Andhra
Pradesh state had been evacuated. The sea has already pushed inland as
much as 130 feet in parts of that state, officials said.
The cyclone was one of three major storms over Asia. The smaller Typhoon
Nari was approaching Vietnam and Typhoon Wipha loomed over the Pacific.
Further northeast, port officials said they feared a Panama-registered
cargo ship, the MV Bingo, carrying 8,000 tonnes of iron ore with a crew
of 17 Chinese and an Indonesian, had sunk as the storm churned across
the Bay of Bengal.
Winds slowed to 90 kph (56 mph) early and rain eased. But large swathes
of Odisha, including its capital, Bhubaneswar, were without electricity
for a second day after the storm tore down power cables. Officials said
it was too early to assess damage accurately.
Soldiers and rescue workers in helicopters, boats and trucks fanned out
across the two states, but officials sounded confident that a major
disaster had been avoided.
The cyclone has destroyed railway signals and high-tension electricity
wires and uprooted tracks and railway platforms at various stations,
bringing rail services in the region to a halt. "More than 100 trains
have been cancelled in Bhadrak, Puri and Palasa sections while at least
25 other trains have been diverted," East Coast Railway spokesperson
Anil Saxena said today. The airport in capital Bhubaneswar was also
closed and 10 flights were cancelled.
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