India evacuates 150,000 as cyclone Hudhud intensifies

About 150,000 people were evacuated on India’s eastern seaboard on Saturday as cyclone Hudhud bore down and grew in sheer force, threatening to devastate farmland and fishing villages when it hits the coast on Sunday morning. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) rated Hudhud as a very severe cyclonic storm that could pack gusts of 195 km/h and dump more than 24.5 cm of rain when it makes landfall. The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), run by the United Nations and the European Commission, forecast even higher peak wind speeds of 212 km/h. Four districts in Andhra Pradesh state that are home to more than 14 million people — Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari — are likely to be worst hit by the storm.

We have already shifted about 10,000 people from low-lying areas and plan to evacuate 14,000 more.

N. Yubaraj, administrative chief of the coastal district of Visakhapatnam district

Authorities in the state set up 370 relief camps to house evacuees. Officials said four naval ships and nine air force helicopters were on standby for relief and rescue operations, while army soldiers and federal rescue workers were also on hand. While India has a disastrous record of response to natural calamities, it managed last October to safely evacuate nearly a million people out of the path of Cyclone Phailin, the strongest tropical storm to hit India in more than a decade. Phailin destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of crops after it made landfall in Orissa, but claimed only about 25 lives.

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