Cyclone Biparjoy uproots trees, electricity poles in Gujarat, leaves 22 injured

Cyclone Biparjoy accompanied with torrential rain struck Gujarat at 125 km per hour on Thursday evening injuring at least 22 people and uprooting over 500 trees and electricity poles in its path. Power supply has been snapped in over 940 villages in Gujarat, according to state officials.

However, the intensity of cyclone Biparjoy has reduced from ‘very severe’ category to ‘severe’ after the landfall, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. “It is expected to weaken further into a depression this evening as it reaches Rajasthan where it will bring extremely heavy rain on June 16 and 17.

Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat on Thursday evening with wind speeds gusting between 125 kmph and 140 kmph. However, it started losing force several hours later and at 2:30 am on Friday the wind speed was down to 100 kilometres, according to IMD.

“Strong winds broke electric wires and poles, causing a power outage in 45 villages of Maliya tehsil. “We are restoring power in nine villages, while electricity has already been restored in the remaining villages,” News agency ANI cited  JC Goswami, executive engineer of Morbi’s Paschim Gujarat Vij Company, as saying.

The Gujarat government said 94,000 people had been evacuated from coastal and low-lying areas to safe shelters.  Around 99 trains have been cancelled due to the cyclone and the sea ports as well as the Jamnagar airport have been shut.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and took stock of the situation after the cyclone struck.

As many as 18 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 12 of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), 115 teams of state road and building department, and 397 of the state electricity department are on the ground in coastal districts.