Cyclone Fani Hits India: Storm Lashes Coast With Hurricane Strength

Just want to say that I have seen such storms and much worse, accompanied by large scale flooding since I was a child and have memories of being flooded out of a home in my childhood, waiting for relief and food. India seems to have a fairly efficient relief and rescue system in place all things considering. The army especially gets involved quickly, air drops, rescues start early on. When I moved abroad and witnessed Katrina and its aftemath on the news, I was horrified. I was genuinely shocked by the chaos I saw in what I always considered, a far more advanced nation. India is much underrated by its own hypercritical citizens. Our democratic chaos hides the progress we have made over the years.

This cyclone is yet another example of storms having much more energy and water content because of ocean warming. They keep happening and they are getting more powerful and more frequent. We know how the Trump administration handles these storms. Just look at the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria. And PR has the additional burden of having Spanish ancestry.

Its a cyclone they flee now, in less than a decade it will be drought, food and water shortages the globe over. I take no joy in being apocalyptic- its just true.

A lot of the comments below are banging the global warming drum. But I don't see any people acting like they really believe that global warming is going to destroy the planet. So, I challenge everyone. Rather than debate global warming how about turning off all of your power items for 24 hours in solidarity with the people of India. Park the car for 24 hours, hold off on having Amazon of Pizza Hut deliver, and go totally Amish for just one day. That would have more impact than political discourse or prayers and condolences. I have not bought a gallon of gas in 10 years and have not been on a plane since 1991. I spent a year using a solar battery to power things while living in a tent. And I don't believe in global warming. I'm going to walk up to the garden center now with my big wagon and get some large bags of soil for outside and then pull it home. The young people all think I'm nuts for walking so far and carrying things back when I could just get someone with an SUV to give me a ride. Its only 40 blocks round trip I tell them. Signing a piece of paper in Paris is not going to save the planet.

I’m deeply heartened to read that this cyclone in India has not resulted in massive death and injury. I grew up in India, and I well remember the deep sorrow and (paradoxically) numbness I and many others felt when another natural disaster claimed many lives. My deepest thanks to and praise for the Indian authorities in speedily evacuating people from the storm’s path. I sincerely hope that everyone who was displaced will soon be rehabilitated and return to their lives. Every governmental entity in India is severely constrained for resources. To achieve this coordinated evacuation with very limited resources requires phenomenal coordination and cooperation among citizens and authorities. Kudos to everyone involved, it’s a feat to be very proud of. And it says volumes about the ability of Indians to come together in tough times.

Caution is warranted before jumping into the conclusion that this is due to climate change around the globe. That might have contributed to little increase in intensity, but that part of the country gets hit by cyclone on a regular basis with wind speeds around 100 mph. The good news is that alert systems and evacuation process has improved significantly reducing the death toll.

This is the nightmare scenario of climate change. Overheated hurricanes and rising seas hitting a river delta home to millions. Perhaps the worst will be avoided. But we must plan/prepare for a future in which this threat. But bottom line? We cannot afford the damage climate change will do.

Praying for the people.. and thinking too of places like the 13th c Sun Temple at Konark on the coast near Puri. Climate change is a bulldozer to our present and future; to our past, too.

For all of us in the US consumed by Trump and Barr drama, this threat to so many people so suddenly and risks of disease afterwards is so sobering. Out thoughts and prayers should go out to them, as well as support for organizations who can help.

Managing these monstrous storms is a test of how well local governments work and their coordination with federal rescue teams. The State of Andhra Pradesh did an amazing job a few years ago after a Category 4 cyclone made landfall. The State of Odisha, where this storm is making landfall, did a poor job during a previous storm. We hope they learned. For those who hate big governments, I hope with the frequency at which these storms are coming, you may want to change course and perhaps asks for more accountable governments rather than just smaller governments.

May they fare better than Puerto Rico on their rebuilding. My thoughts are with them.

Crushing poverty meets rising sea levels and climate-intensified storms. Given that much of the world shows little movement in addressing any of the above, thoughts and prayers will have to suffice.

Am I the only one wondering why the officials were able to impressively evacuate 1 million people (!) ahead of the massive storm, but the construction crane couldn't have been disassembled or at the very least, secured and stabalized so it wouldn't go crashing down onto another possibly occupied building?

How is a storm with winds "gusting" to 120 mph equivalent to a Cat 5 hurricane? Cat 5s have sustained winds of >157mph.

Climate change is still a question in people's minds? Humans need to wake up...

This is the 3rd cyclone since April - the other two hit Africa, and also were storms of enormous strength. Here is more evidence of climate change - and this should be on the front page, every day. While we dither, and the headlines focus on issues which are trivial compared to climate change, the natural world is reacting to the damage we have done. The time for incremental measures to address climate change has passed. Now we need massive systems change to avoid the absolute worst and to mitigate the damage from what we have already done.

In 1970, a similar cyclone killed 300,000 people. It also killed untold numbers of livestock. It’s a testament to modern technology that there was enough time and resources to evacuate one million people. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the storm fades somewhat.

And they have 1.3 billion more who can assist those million.

This is partly due to Donald Trump not signing the Paris Climate Accords. We could’ve been saving lives well into his second term. But no, poor third worlders must bear the brunt of horrible White People policies. This must end. Bernie can step up and apologize to India for this and to Mozambique. My heart bleeds for Asia and Africa.

The one encouraging news is that government agencies in India have proved their worth in protecting lives, with 1M evacuated in advance (so far only 3 reported dead, not thousands). Unfortunately, we are likely to see more serious weather events, as world governments, led by the US, are failing us in mitigating climate change. We are actually stepping backwards.

These storms are from coal use and fossil fuel use. Carbon gets trapped in the atmosphere. The climate deniers are continuing using coal and fossil fuels and make big remarks about how this is fake. Very sad. I see it only getting worse until India gets some politicians who will do something about this.

Downgraded from “extremely severe” to “very severe.” About all we have control of anymore is the choice of words we use to describe what we are helpless only to watch.

Gusts of 120 mph, (the article did not say knots) is a category three (3) storm. It is just a simple verifiable fact. The amount of damage on straw thatched huts might seem like the equivalent of a category five here in the USA but and equivalent storm with gusts, not sustained winds, of 120 mph is still a category three. Hurricanes in the USA are rated by wind speed not by the damage they cause.

I watched the video of the wind taking out sections of windows in a building as if they were made of plastic, and a construction crane toppling down like it was made of sticks. During all of this a car is seen cruising down the street. I kept asking myself, "What the heck? Who ventures out during a cyclone?" In the end, I am always amazed and equally grateful that more people came out of these storms alive then not. I fear that the death toll will be higher than what it usually is. I just hope these wonderful people of India receive the medical aid, food, fresh water and resources needed to recover and rebuild from this disaster. If a link for donations has been established, it would be most appreciative if that could be made available. Thank you NYT for covering this story.

Your death toll for the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh is way off. Rather than the 1,000 figure provided, the actual death toll, sadly, was 140,000 making it second only to the 1970 cyclone.

Ever more densely populated areas mean more tragic consequences to natural catastrophes, and it certainly is predictable that the world will have more of the latter due to climate changes. India's population has problems that we in North America can only begin to grasp. I don't really believe that invoking God will help them, and I don't believe charity will ever be enough to mitigate the effects. As for sensible approaches, we don't even do that here - - - What suffering.

Invoking Divine protection to the millions upon millions of dear and vulnerable people in these low lying areas...thinking about the beautiful farmers and their families in the villages of the Sundarbans along the Gangetic delta, the 15+million living in Kolkata with so many of them on the streets, my sweet Rickshaw driver, Vijaya, in Puri and his family, and all those living near creeks and rivers as 8 inches of rain fall, praying it is possible for them to evacuate to higher ground...but the ground often has so few trees, even on higher ground, so it is vulnerable to mud slides. This is gut wrenching and devastating. I hope NYT will continue to cover the story well.

Good coverage by NYT - Thoughts and prayers for everyone affected by this storm. India's emergency responses and communication has massively improved since the last decade, thanks in large part to advancements in space/satellite technology. Couple clarifications though - 120 MPH is category 4 not 5 (not that 4 isn't deadly enough) and also it only affected part of the east coast. India's west coast is not affected. An interesting parallel with the US is that hurricanes/cyclones happen usually on India's east coast & the west coast almost never sees one.

Hmm. The last I checked, a minute ago, "winds gusting at more than 120 miles per hour" do not a Category 5 storm make. Category 5 hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones have sustained winds of 157 MPH or above.

Though human capacity to fight Nature's fury is limited, also the climate change is a reality, yet it is an improved communication and early warning system made possible by technology alongwith the international cooperation and assistance at such critical times that the ferocious tropical storms like Fani that struck the East Coast of the Indian subcontinent at Puri, Odisha this morning could be managed now with lesser cost. Even, the life lost during such devastation is a collective loss for humanity.

Yes, Jim, beautifully said, "thoughts and prayers should go out to them, as well as support for organizations who can help." Our hearts are with all who are working so hard to keep everyone safe.

In 1999 more than 10,000 people died, very sad , I hope this time the number will be far lower. Technology has changed a lot since 1999 even in India. Today almost every one has a cell phone and the mass communication has improved a lot. India handled the tsunami very well in 2004 .Hope for the best this time also.

Modi will take necessary steps to save as many lives. Country is finally in right hands.

What a gorgeous photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar. Hope everyone stays safe.

So the Children of Privilege who dropped in from their affluence to beguile the tedium of awaiting dividends had to turn back on Everest...one cares far more about the hundreds of million of real people unable to turn back from this cyclonic storm. A storm that takes at least some of its formidable energy from the complexity of human-created climate change...

In the very near future a series of super-charged storms will, in close succession, roll across Florida. Think two or more of last year’s Hurricane Michael (which resulted in the greatest single day loss of American fighter aircraft since World War 2). Hurricane Michael’s path was through an area of relatively low population density. A single Michael-like storm through Miami and Fort Lauderdale would be devastating. Imagine several in a row, like what just happened to Mozambique. The era of abandoning environmentally high risk areas is just beginning. And we’ve not begun to prepare.

Why is there no mention of climate change in this article?

This cyclone looks very dangerous. I pray that it will not cause any harm to citizens.