Cyclone Titli: Odisha evacutes 3 lakh people from coastal districts

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said at least three lakh people have been evacuated from coastal districts of the State in view of impending cyclone ‘Titli’ that will make a landfall on Thursday morning.

After attending the review meeting at the office of Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) at State Secretariat here this evening, Naveen told reporters: “Till now 3 lakh people have been evacuated as cyclone Titli is likely to make landfall at 5 am tomorrow.”

“If required, more people will be evacuated to safer places,” he added.

The CM stressed on his government’s “zero casualty” disaster management policy. “The State government has been closely monitoring the situation to avoid any casualty,” Naveen said.

Earlier in the day, people in five coastal districts such as Puri, Ganjam, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara were evacuated to safer places.

The review meeting was attended by Chief Secretary A P Padhi, SRC B P Sethi, among others.

IMD classified Titli as a very “severe cyclonic storm” with very high wind speeds and forecast to hit the coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam in Odisha.

Official sources said as many as 9,83,642 people were evacuated during Cyclone Phailin that the State in 2013.  Around 2,55,042 people were shifted to safer places during Cyclone Hudhud in 2014.