Cyclone Nisarga yesterday ripped roofs off homes in a coastal town near Mumbai after officials ordered offices and factories to shut, and told people to stay home, reversing a move to ease a coronavirus lockdown in the Indian megacity.
Mumbai and its surrounds are usually sheltered from cyclones — the last severe storm to hit the city was in 1948 — but authorities have evacuated at least 100,000 people from flood-prone areas in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The storm made landfall near the coastal town of Alibag, about 100km south of Mumbai, yesterday afternoon, meteorologists said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
They warned of heavy rainfall — with winds of 100kph to 110kph and gusts of up to 120kph — as well as storm surges up to 2m high.
Those evacuated include nearly 150 COVID-19 patients from a recently built field hospital in Mumbai, underscoring the difficulties facing the city ahead of the monsoon season as it struggles to contain the pandemic.
A 45-year-old Alibag resident evacuated from his home near the sea said that he could see corrugated roofing flying through the air as Nisarga’s powerful winds struck.
“The intensity is very strong and nothing like weather events we’ve seen before,” said Milind Dhodre, a professor who lives in Alibag with his wife and son.
The coastal town is a favored haunt of Bollywood stars and industrialists, who own holiday homes there.
In Mumbai, police announced fresh restrictions on the city of 18 million people, which was just beginning to emerge from a months-long lockdown, and banned gatherings of four people or more until this afternoon.
“Refrain from venturing out to coast-beaches, promenade, parks and other similar places along the coastline,” the police tweeted early yesterday.
“Do not leave your house for your own safety and well-being,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote on Twitter late on Tuesday, warning of possible disruptions to the power supply due to heavy rainfall.
“Offices, industries and other activities, which have started functioning, will be shut tomorrow and day after,” he added.
Slum dwellers in low-lying areas of Mumbai have been instructed to move to higher ground, with city authorities turning empty schools into temporary shelters.
Inter-state railway services were also disrupted, with delays and diversions to ensure that trains would not travel through Mumbai until the cyclone had passed.
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