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| Photo-BBC |
As many as 500,000 people
in India have been evacuated as a massive cyclone sweeps through the
Bay of Bengal towards the east coast.
Cyclone Phailin, categorised as "very severe" by weather
forecasters, is expected to hit Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states on
Saturday evening.The Meteorological Department has predicted the storm will bring winds of up to 220km/h (136mph).
A super-cyclone in 1999 killed more than 10,000 people in Orissa.
But officials say this time they are better prepared, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Orissa reports.
The Meteorological Department said Cyclone
Phailin was due to make landfall late on Saturday evening, Indian time.
The centre of the storm was expected to hit the coast around the town of Gopalpur.
Homes at risk
Officials said Cyclone Phailin would bring a storm surge of at
least 3m (10ft) that was likely to cause "extensive damage" to mud
houses on the coast. "No-one will be allowed to stay in mud and thatched houses in the coastal areas,'' said Orissa's Disaster Management Minister Surya Narayan Patra.
The army is on standby in the two states for emergency and relief operations. Officials said helicopters and food packages were ready to be dropped in the storm-affected areas.
Meanwhile, the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre predicted that Phailin could produce gusts of up to 296km/h (184 mph), while the London-based Tropical Storm Risk classified Phailin as a Category Five storm - the most powerful.
BBC
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