Cyclone Fani headed towards Bangladesh, after Odisha and West Bengal

Guwahati, May 4, 2019:

After breaking Odisha's back, cyclone Fani hit West Bengal early today morning and is likely to continue in the North-east direction with wind speeds of 90km/hr.

Nine people have died in Odisha so far and several areas in Puri were submerged as heavy rain battered the coast, officials said.

The cyclonic storm — the strongest cyclone in India in 20 years — is weakening gradually as it moves into West Bengal.

The Odisha government has evacuated over 11 lakh people to camps on higher grounds. “I assure the affected people that the nation and the centre are with them,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally in Rajasthan.

He said over Rs. 1,000 crores had been released in advance for the states to be affected by Cyclone Fani.

Meanwhile, the Assam government on Friday directed all district deputy commissioners and agencies concerned to be on alert and take necessary measures to deal with the situation.

It may be mentioned that the name of the tropical cyclone “Fani”, pronounced as ‘Foni’ was suggested by Bangladesh. It means ‘Snake’ or ‘hood of snake’.