Ahmedabad: At least seven people were killed in Gujarat as cyclone Tauktae battered parts of the state and left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles and trees, and damaging several houses and roads, officials said on Tuesday.
Over 16,000 houses were damaged, and more than 40,000 trees and over 1,000 poles uprooted due to the cyclonic storm, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said.
The landfall process of the eye of the extremely severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, which hit the Gujarat coast in the Saurashtra region between Diu and Una ended around midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
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It crossed the Gujarat coast as an "extremely severe cyclonic storm" and gradually weakened.
On Tuesday morning, it lay over the Saurashtra region near Amreli as a "severe severe cyclonic storm," and was likely to weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by the afternoon, the IMD said in its latest bulletin.
The wind intensity reduced to 105-115 kmph gusting to 125 kmph, as the cyclone lay 15 km east-northeast of Amreli, around 125 km south-southwest of Surendranagar, and 205 km southwest of Ahmedabad, as per the IMD bulletin at 10.30 am.
After cyclone Tauktae hit Ahmedabad, the district collector has appealed to the citizens to avoid unnecessary movement out of their houses as the coming 6-8 hours are crucial.
Even as the cyclonic intensity weakened, it left behind a trail of destruction, with at least seven people losing their lives - three in Bhavnagar, and one each in Rajkot, Patan, Amreli and Valsad, officials said.
An official of the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) confirmed three casualties due to the cyclone, one each from Rajkot, Valsad and Bhavnagar.
An electric pole fell on a woman while she was sleeping in Patan town late Monday night amid strong wind, an official from Patan A-division police station said.
A woman and her daughter were killed when the wall of their house collapsed at Badeli village in Palitana taluka of Bhavnagar, a local administration official said.
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In another incident, a girl died after the roof of their house collapsed on four members of the family at Rajula in Amreli district on Monday night, police said.
Chief Minister Rupani told reporters in Gandhinagar that 16,500 houses, mostly thatched ones, were damaged, and more than 40,000 trees and 1,081 poles, mainly of electric supply were uprooted due to the cyclone.
Also, 159 roads were damaged and 196 blocked due to different reasons, he said, adding that 45 of them were so far cleared for traffic movement.
There was a power outage in 2,437 villages and the supply has been restored in 484 villages till now, he said.
Rupani said the state government's major concern was the uninterrupted treatment of COVID-19 patients in around 1,400 hospitals across the state.