Powerful Cyclone Tauktae Will Make Landfall in India Today
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Indian authorities raced Monday to evacuate hundreds of thousands from the coast as powerful Cyclone Tauktae roared toward landfall.
Tauktae, with maximum sustained winds that were equivalent to the strength of a Category 4 hurricane, was expected to make landfall late Monday in Gujarat state.
Already six people in southern India have died because of the storm. Four people were killed and 73 villages badly damaged on Sunday in the state of Karnataka, the Associated Press reported. Two people died in the state of Goa.
Train service has been disrupted because of flooding and trees falling onto tracks, the Indian Express reported. Two barges with nearly 400 people aboard were adrift off the coast of Mumbai after they lost power in the storm.
The airport in Mumbai closed for operations till at least 6 p.m. Monday.
The cyclone has damaged hundreds of houses, uprooted utility poles and trees and forced thousands to flee as India has been in the midst of a deadly COVID-19 surge.
(MORE: Tropical Cyclone Tauktae Expected to Make Landfall in India Later Monday)
The country has seen more than 24 million confirmed cases and 270,000 deaths. Experts think the country's steeply rising curve may finally be flattening with an average of 340,000 confirmed daily cases last week, AP reported. New coronavirus cases dipped below 300,000 for the first time in weeks on Monday.
Some vaccination efforts were suspended because of the cyclone, there's a danger in crowded evacuation shelters of the virus spreading.
The chief minister in Gujarat , Vijay Rupani, asked officials to ensure that oxygen supplies for hospitals are not disrupted, AP reported.
Udaya Regmi, the South Asia head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said, "The potential impacts of Cyclone Tauktae are frightening as this monster storm threatens the state of Gujarat. Every effort must continue to keep people safe from this dangerous storm and the raging pandemic."
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