- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:26 05:44 12:20 15:47 18:50 20:08
Cyclone Phailin powered its way inland over eastern India on Sunday leaving a swathe of destruction but the loss of life appeared limited after more than half a million people sought safety in storm shelters.
Phailin was the strongest storm to hit India in 14 years. Torn branches littered a road running past destroyed huts and twisted electricity poles along a large stretch of the east coast.
At least five people were killed - four people by falling trees and one when the walls of her mud house collapsed as the storm roared in off the Bay of Bengal, authorities said.
The cyclone was one of three major storms over Asia on Sunday. The smaller Typhoon Nari was approaching Vietnam and Typhoon Wipha loomed over the Pacific.
More than half a million people in India spent the night in shelters, some built after a storm killed 10,000 people in 1999. Others took refuge in temples.
By first light, winds had slowed to 90 kph (56 mph) from top speeds of 200 kph (124 mph) when the storm made landfall near the town of Gopalpur in Odisha state on Saturday night.
Television images showed cars flipped on their sides and debris-strewn streets in the silk producing city of Brahmapur, one of the hardest hit. A few trucks and motor-bikes returned to the city's streets as residents emerged to survey the damage.
Large swathes of Odisha, including its capital, were without electricity for a second day after the storm ripped down power cables, and officials said it was too early to give an accurate damage assessment.
"We will assess after the cyclone eases ... even now the cyclone is on," said Odisha's chief secretary J.K Mohapatra.
"There has been pretty severe devastation in Brahmapur town."
Soldiers and rescue workers in helicopters, boats and trucks will fan out across Odisha and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state to review the damage. The India Meteorological Department warned of extensive flooding and destruction of flimsy homes.
Higher sea levels driven by storm surges can cause the worst destruction. Phailin was forecast to drive sea levels up 11 feet (3.5 metres) at its peak.
At least 550,000 people were crammed into shelters including schools and temples, in what the National Disaster Management Authority called one of India's largest evacuations.
In Mogadhalupadu, a fishing village in Andhra Pradesh, where some people had refused to leave their boats and nets, the damage was less than feared. Seawater surged into huts made from coconut palms near the beach.
"People have come back to the village now," said village chief Jagdesh Dasari, saying winds that gusted through the night had dropped off and the rain was light.
Operations at Paradip port in Odisha have been halted since Friday. All vessels were ordered to leave the port, which handles coal, crude oil and iron ore. An oil tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil, worth $220 million, was moved.
The storm landed far north of India's largest gas field, the D6 natural gas block in the Cauvery Basin further down the east coast, operated by Reliance Industries.
Even before the cyclone made landfall, strong winds had torn away trees and ripped through flimsy homes.
India braces... Click here for more pics
The army's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said 1,200 of its troops had been sent to Orissa and a further 500 to Andhra Pradesh.
"As soon as the fury of the cyclone abates our boys will start their work," NDRF director general Krishna Chaudhary told reporters.
"The teams have medical first responders (for first aid), heavy cutting equipment, life-saving equipment that responds to breathing and even to warmth. In the case of cyclones there is a likelihood of collapsed buildings."
While the full extent of the damage could not be measured until the morning, the director general of the Indian meteorological department L.S. Rathore said the cyclone posed a danger to a 150-kilometre (around 95 miles) stretch of coastline.
No let-upIn an overnight bulletin, the department said there would be rain in most of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring West Bengal for the next 48 hours.im
"Extremely heavy falls" of up to 25 centimetres (around 10 inches) would occur over Orissa and north coastal Andhra Pradesh throughout Sunday and Monday, the bulletin said.
In the seaside town of Gopalpur, hundreds of terrified residents spent the night huddled in shelters, schools and public buildings.
Moments after the cyclone hit the town around 9:00 pm, shards of glass and asbestos strips could be seen whipping through the air.
The main focus of the relief effort was in Orissa's state capital Bhubaneswar where the air force, fresh from helping evacuate thousands from floods in the Himalayas in June, flew in food and medical supplies.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters that 450,000 people had been evacuated in Orissa and around 100,000 in Andhra Pradesh.
Food stockpiling began earlier in the week as Phailin gathered strength dramatically, with many shops stripped bare.
"Everyone's in trouble so I've kept my shop open to help them," said shopkeeper Susil Kumar Singh, the owner of one of the few stores still operating in Bhubaneswar.
"Right now, there's no drinking water and trees are falling down all around," he told AFP.
Further south in the town of Chatrapur, volunteers doled out plates of rice to hundreds of evacuees who had taken shelter in a relief camp.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had issued orders that "all possible assistance should be extended to the state governments concerned in ensuring the safety and security of the people and in relief and rescue operations", according to a statement from his office.
Transport links downNearby airports have been closed and train services suspended while fishermen were ordered not to go out to sea.
The destruction has revived memories of an even more catastrophic cyclone back in 1999 which hit the same coastal area -- a region populated by fishermen and small-scale farmers who live in flimsy huts with thatched roofs or shanties.
A government report on the 1999 disaster put the death toll at 8,243, and said 445,000 livestock perished.
Authorities have said they are better prepared this time. The Orissa government said it was setting a "zero casualty target" in the state of close to 40 million people.
"No one was prepared for the storm in 1999 but this time the government declared an emergency," said telecoms worker Rajiv Baral as he bought emergency supplies from the shopkeeper Singh in Bhubaneswar.
"Because of that we've been getting ready for it for two to three days."
Some of the deadliest storms in history have formed in the Bay of Bengal, including one in 1970 that killed hundreds of thousands of people in modern-day Bangladesh.
India control room nos for #Phailin 0091 - 040- 23456005/23451043 (Andhra Pradesh) & 0091 - 0674- 2534177 (Orissa)
As Super Cyclone Phailin made landfall in India, at 4.25pm UAE time, Google had already launched a People Finder dedicated to those affected by the cyclone on the east coast of India. Click here to go to the people finder
Click to read: In the eye of Cyclone Phailin
"The very severe cyclonic storm Phailin is moving menacingly towards the coast," special relief commissioner for the state of Orissa, Pradipta Mohapatra told AFP, as it arrived within 150 kilometres (90 miles) of landfall.
Authorities said they expected a three-metre (10-foot) storm surge when the eye of the cyclone strikes in the early evening (around 1230 GMT), with torrential rain also threatening floods in low-lying areas.
"I've got faint memories of the 1999 super cyclone," nervous 23-year-old student engineer Apurva Abhijeeta told AFP from the coastal town of Puri, 70 kilometres from state capital Bhubaneswar.
"I dread this Phailin. It's as if the world is coming to an end."
Heavy waves pounded the coast as terrified locals made their way to solid buildings, cramming into packed rickshaws and buses as they travelled. Relief efforts were underway, with free food being served in shelters.
Food stockpiling began earlier in the week as Phailin gathered strength dramatically in the Bay of Bengal, with many shops stripped bare before they closed on Saturday afternoon.
In Visakhapatnam, further south on the coast of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, fishermen frantically sought to secure their boats while others admired the rough surf.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.
