Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he will be visiting Gujarat and Diu to review the situation and damage caused by cyclone Tauktae. Modi will leave Delhi in the morning and will land at Bhavnagar from where he will proceed for an aerial survey of Una, Diu, Jafarabad and Mahuva. The prime minister will also hold a review meeting with officials in Ahmedabad.
The storm has claimed at least 13 lives and left a trail of destruction in the Saurashtra region after it made landfall near Una in Gir Somnath district on Monday, bringing along with it very strong winds and heavy rainfall that damaged nearly 16,500 houses and uprooted over 40,000 trees.
Meanwhile, several Navy vessels, helicopters, tug boats and rescue ships were pressed into service to evacuate people stuck on different barges in the high sea off the Mumbai coast. According to the latest information, a total of 180 people on-board barge P305, which sunk after it went adrift in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai, have been saved. Near 80 people are still missing. Meanwhile, a total of 339 people onboard Gal Constructor and SS-3 are said to be rescued.
Power outages were reported from 5,951 villages, including 52 Covid-19 hospitals and 13 oxygen plants, while damage to 196 roads was also reported from across the region. Several rivers in the Saurashtra region are in spate following the heavy rainfall since Monday. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who took stock of the situation from the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Gandhinagar, said 13 ‘accidental’ deaths have been reported including one each from Vapi, Rajkot and Gariyadhar.
The cyclonic storm damaged a sea-facing safety wall and iron gates near the iconic Gateway of India and some jetty stones in the vicinity also got dislodged due to its impact, civic officials said.
The main structure of the historic monument did not suffer any damage, but a portion of the footpath near it caved in, they said.
Huge tidal waves in the Arabian Sea threw heaps of garbage at the monument, which is a major tourist attraction, as the cyclonic storm passed close to the Mumbai coast on Monday, they said.
Meanwhile, a Chetak helicopter operating from Coast Guard Air Enclave Goa rescued two distressed and stranded employee of Light House Authority from Vengrula LightHouse– 38 Nautical miles North of Vasco. The lighthouse had a total power failure and was badly damaged due to high-speed wind and rough weather conditions at sea. As many as 2,364 trees were uprooted in Mumbai as heavy winds reaching up to 114 km/hour swept through the city. Mumbai also received 230 mm rainfall due to the cyclonic storm.
Widespread rain over northwest India
Remnants of cyclone are likely to cause widespread rain over northwest India for the next three days, with moderate to heavy intensity rainfall forecast in Delhi-NCR on Wednesday as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The cyclone is likely to move north-northeastwards from the Gujarat coast and weaken gradually over the next three hours, causing heavy to very heavy rainfall over Rajasthan on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tauktae is the fourth cyclone in consecutive years to have developed in the Arabian Sea, that too in the pre-monsoon period (April to June). All these cyclones since 2018 have been categorised either ‘Severe Cyclone’ or above. The cyclonic storm has brought along extremely rough weather conditions across the west coast of India. While the southern peninsula drenched under incessant heavy downpour for the last few days, the storm has now induced torrential rains and gusty winds across Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The storm usually weakens rapidly after landfall as the ocean heat and moisture that fuels the storm are no longer available. Therefore, the rainfall intensity will gradually reduce as the storm moves inland, but it can still produce heavy rains over Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Wednesday. The IMD states that the remnants of this system are likely to cause fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with thunderstorms over the Western Himalayan Region and the adjoining plains of northwest India, especially on May 19 and 20. These aforementioned regions may also witness isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall on these two days. Besides heavy rains, all these aforementioned places are expected to experience thunderstorms, lightning, hailstorms along with gusty winds blowing at the speed of 40 to 50 kmph.
Orange alert across northwest India
Owing to these rough weather conditions, the IMD has issued an orange alert over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh. This level of advisory instructs residents to ‘be prepared’ for the rough weather conditions. The rainfall intensity will gradually be subdued over the other places, and therefore, only Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and west Uttar Pradesh have been placed under an orange alert for May 20. Warning levels in other places like Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi are demoted to yellow watch, which instructs residents to ‘be aware’ of the weather. Meanwhile, for both the days, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh has been placed under the yellow watch advisory.
