A severe cyclone packing winds of 110kph closed in on India’s southeast coast yesterday as tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes fearing major storm damage.
Cyclone Laila was expected to hit the state of Andhra Pradesh later in the day, with forecasters warning of a sea surge and disrupted power and communication lines.
As heavy rain and strong gales battered the coast, state authorities said at least 30,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying areas.
The armed forces were drafted in to help the evacuation efforts after Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister, K. Rosaiah, called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to request extra assistance.
“We have had no power supply since yesterday,” Ramulu, a middle-aged resident of Balajinagar town, told the TV5 local news channel.
“The municipal authorities are just not bothered about people’s plight,” he said. “We have formed our own teams to clear the roads of fallen trees and electric poles.”
The Indian Meteorological Department graded the cyclone as “severe,” and said it was due to hit land near the city of Machilipatnam after moving from its current position 100km off the coast in the Bay of Bengal.
The department’s latest warning said a “storm surge” of up to 2m above the regular tide was likely to inundate parts of Andhra Pradesh.
It said large trees were likely to be uprooted, houses damaged and escape routes from the coast flooded.
All fishermen were ordered to stay on shore because of “very rough” sea conditions, and the Press Trust of India news agency said Reliance Industries had suspended crude oil and gas production in the Bay as a precaution.
The agency said 40,000 people had been evacuated from hundreds of coastal villages, while some air flights and train services were also affected.
State disaster officials said that besides existing cyclone shelters, schools and community halls were serving as relief camps to evacuees.
Three people were killed when a shed collapsed during heavy winds in Andhra Pradesh, while a fisherman drowned in rough sea in neighboring Tamil Nadu state. Local reports put the total death toll at between 14 and 17.
The cyclone, which weakened slightly overnight, is forecast to move up the coast through Orissa and West Bengal states after making land.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the