India’s east coast yesterday braced for a cyclone covering half the size of the country, with tens of thousands of residents in low-lying areas fleeing their homes after authorities forecast a risk to life and extensive damage once the storm hits land.
Satellite images showed Cyclone Phailin 500km off the coast in the Bay of Bengal and likely to make landfall tonight. Some forecasters likened its size and intensity to that of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf Coast and New Orleans in 2005.
The Indian Meteorological Department described Phailin as a “very severe cyclonic storm” with wind speeds of 210 to 220kph and said it would hit between Kalingapatnam and the major port of Paradip in Odisha state. The US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center predicted gusts of up to 305kph.
Photo: AFP
“We plan to evacuate about 100,000 families in Ganjam District by tomorrow morning,” Odisha’s Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra said.
State authorities said 5,000 families had already moved into shelters and schools. Shelters were being stocked with rations, and leave for government employees was canceled.
The government broadcast cyclone warnings through loudspeakers and on radio and television as the first winds were felt on the coast and in the state capital, Bhubaneswar. People living in thatched houses in low-lying areas were told to move to cyclone shelters, high-rise buildings and other safer places.
Residents reported 3.5m waves, but fishermen hoped the storm would pass over and were reluctant to leave their boats.
Helicopters were on standby in neighboring West Bengal, ready to drop food packets into isolated areas, officials said.
Indian authorities warned of extensive damage to crops, village dwellings and old buildings, as well as disruption of power, water and rail services.
“Within 12 hours of cyclone strike we will try to clear all the roads. Within 24 hours we will try to restore water supply and electricity,” Mohapatra said.
Meanwhile, Typhoon Nari also gained strength as it swept toward the Philippines yesterday, prompting warnings of more brutal weather for tens of millions of people living around the flood-prone capital.
Nari forced US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to cancel a visit to Manila, and weather forecasters said it had since been upgraded from a tropical storm to a typhoon as its wind gusts increased to 160kph.
Nari was expected to hit farming regions on the east coast of the main island of Luzon late last night, with “heavy to intense” rain forecast across its 500km-wide footprint, the state weather service said.
Manila is about 135km south of where the eye of the storm is expected to make landfall, and government weather forecaster Bernie Belen said the capital would likely again endure floods.
“Even without a storm, heavy rains can cause floods in Manila. How much more when there is a typhoon?” Belen said.
Heavy rains are expected to persist across much of the main island of Luzon throughout today as Nari travels west, before blowing out into the South China Sea in the evening.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS