india

Updated: May 03, 2019 16:12 IST

As Cyclone Fani barrelled into Odisha on Friday, uprooting trees and electric poles, it also caused extensive damage to the building of the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in state capital Bhubaneswar.

A video tweeted by the director general of the Press Information Bureau, Sitangshu Kar showed the roof of one of its hostel for undergraduate students being ripped off in the impact of the strong winds.

“Video clip of a roof being blown off at the undergraduate hostel in AIIMS Bhubaneshwar due to #CycloneFani #Fani #FaniCyclone #FaniUpdates,” Kar said as he tweeted a four-second video.

“Extensive damage to structure of AIIMS Bhubaneswar reported due to #CycloneFani . All patients,staff, students safe.Many water tanks have blown off,lighting poles are down, airconditioners damaged. We have enough supplies, ready to support the state (sic),” Kar also quoted Union health secretary Preeti Sudan as saying.

Another video, tweeted by the press arm of the government, showed the impact of Cyclone Fani as trees were seen swaying in strong winds amid heavy rain.

A senior Odisha government official said two people were killed as Cyclone Fani slammed into the state earlier in the day with winds gusting at speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour.

“I can confirm two deaths for now. One old man in one of the shelters died because of (a) heart attack. Another person went out in the storm despite our warnings and died because a tree fell on him,” Odisha state special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said while speaking to news agency AFP.

Cyclonic storm Fani made landfall in Odisha’s Puri district wreaking havoc on Friday damaging houses, uprooting thousands of trees and electricity poles. The Odisha government has evacuated more than a million people from districts affected by India’s strongest summertime cyclone in the last 43 years and asked people to remain indoors.

The India Meteorological Department said Cyclone Fani is expected to weaken with a wind speed of 150-160km per hour and that it will weaken and move north-northeastwards. By evening, it may weaken into a severe cyclonic storm over the extreme northern part of Odisha, it added.

The system is then very likely to continue to move north-northeastwards, weaken gradually and emerge into Gangetic West Bengal as a “severe cyclonic storm” by the early morning of May 4.

It is very likely to move further north-northeastwards and emerge into Bangladesh on May 4 evening as a cyclonic storm.