Cyclone Fani hit the Odisha coast on Friday morning, uprooting trees and submerging a few areas in Puri and other places. Officials said that the landfall process was completed by 11 am.
According to reports, one person died after strong, heavy winds uprooted trees in Sakhigopal area of Puri.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm made landfall at around 8.30 am in Puri. Over 10 lakh people were evacuated from coastal districts on Thursday thanks to warnings issued ahead of landfall.
Fani is the strongest cyclonic storm since the Super Cyclone of 1999, which claimed nearly 10,000 lives. It has been termed the worst cyclone in 20 years and has triggered heavy rainfall and wind speeds up to 200-230 kmph. Strong winds were felt in parts of Andhra Pradesh.
READ: Cyclone Fani: NDMA releases do's and don'ts
Cyclone Fani is expected to move north-westwards and gradually weaken as it reaches West Bengal by Saturday morning.
All flights from Bhubaneswar have been cancelled and Kolkata airport is expected to be shut by Friday evening. Train services were cancelled in the wake of the cyclone and only special trains were running till Thursday to facilitate safe evacuation of people from the coastal areas.
Arrangements have been made to start free kitchens at the cyclone shelters. Around 4,000 such shelters, including 880 specially designed cyclone centres, are housing the evacuees.
Over one lakh dry food packets have been kept ready for air dropping for which two choppers requisitioned.
The Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard have been put on high alert and are on stand by.
The name Fani (pronounced Foni), which means hood of a snake, was suggested by Bangladesh.
(With inputs from agencies)
