India to evacuate thousands as cyclone nears west coast

CHANDIGARH, India

Authorities in India said they plan to evacuate thousands of people to safer locations with Cyclone Vayu expected to make landfall Thursday morning in the coastal state of Gujarat.

“The Gujarat and the Diu administration plan to evacuate about [300,000 people] from the identified vulnerable areas starting in the early morning of June 12, 2019. The evacuated people will be shifted to around 700 cyclone/relief shelters,” the Indian government said Wednesday in a statement, adding the authorities have also been advised on the timely evacuation of people from low-lying coastal and vulnerable areas.

The government issued a separate statement quoting a forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) saying Cyclone Vayu is expected to hit the Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Mahuva as a severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 110-120 kilometers per hour gusting to 135 km/h Thursday morning.

India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has said that 39 teams from the NDRF are being deployed at agreed prepositioning locations identified in Gujarat state and the union territory of Diu.

Sixty-four people died last month from Cyclone Fani after it hit Odisha state and caused massive destruction.