Powerful cyclone Phailin, the worst since the disastrous super-cyclone of 1999, today pounded the Odisha coast, bringing in its wake torrential rains and wind speeds of over 200 kmph in the state and in neighbouring north coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Vast swathes of coastal districts of Odisha, especially Ganjam, whose Gopalpur-on-sea was the entry point for the storm, were engulfed in darkness as trees and electric poles were felled by the cyclone. Terrified people were forced to remain indoors by heavy rains and vehicular traffic came to a grinding halt.
Bracing for the cyclonic storm, more than half a million people were evacuated by authorities from vulnerable areas in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in one of the biggest such exercises.
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said 4.5 lakh people were moved to safer places in Odisha and another lakh were taken to safety in Andhra Pradesh in order to avoid a repeat of the super cyclone that left close to 10,000 people dead 14 years ago.
The evacuated people were crammed into cyclone shelters, schools and public buildings.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall were also widespread in the districts of Gajapati, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Bhadrak and Kendrapara in coastal region of Odisha besides state capital Bhubaneshwar.
However, the extent of casualties, if any, and damage wreaked by the cyclone after the land fall were not immediately available.
Five people were killed in Odisha in the heavy rains ahead of the storm. Of them, three persons, including a woman, were killed after uprooted trees fell on them in the state capital and at Khalikote and Polsara in Ganjam district, police said.
The cyclone made its landfall "very close to Gopalpur town" around 9 pm and has just started crossing the coast in Odisha, IMD Director General L S Rathore told reporters in New Delhi just a little later.
"Still there is scope the speed to go up as the cyclone will remain very severe for six hours. Post landfall, there will be no large change in the intensity," he said, adding that for another 12 to 24 hours, there will be moderate rains in large parts of east India.
He denied that 'Phailin' was a super cyclone.
In Andhra Pradesh, 1,29,100 people from 294 villages in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts have been shifted to 115 relief camps.
AP Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy late tonight reviewed the impact of the cyclone and directed the entire official machinery in the north coastal districts to remain on high alert through the night.
