Cyclone Tauktae hit Mumbai with full fury bringing heavy rains, strong gales of over 75-85 kmph, which wreaked havoc by uprooting scores of trees, damaged some homes, and disrupted road traffic, though there were no human casualties, officials said on Monday. In an alarming development, the Indian Navy has despatched two ships to rescue around 273 personnel of the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) who are stranded on a drifting barge near the Bombay High Fields, around 175 km off Mumbai, in the direct path of the cyclone whirling towards Gujarat in the choppy Arabian Sea.
There are reports of at least two deaths — one of a youth in Navi Mumbai and another woman in a wallcrash in Raigad — but officials have not confirmed so far.
The IMD on Monday afternoon upgraded the warnings for Mumbai with ‘extremely heavy rainfall’ with gusty winds that will escalate upto 120 kmph, said an official.
Categorised now as ‘Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm’, its effects were felt shortly after midnight of Sunday-Monday with many areas lashed by heavy rains, accompanied by lightning and thunder in some places, aggravated by powerful winds, as it whirled northwards from Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri towards Raigad-Mumbai en route to the Gujarat coast.
As a major precautionary measure, the state authorities have already shifted out 12,420 people from vulnerable spots along the coast Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Raigad, as per the directives of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is keeping close tabs on the situation, an official said.
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport which was shut for all operations from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., extended the shutdown till 4 p.m. owing to inclement weather conditions, even as 3 private airlines flights were diverted to less turbulent locations. Till Monday noon, the city had recorded 79.4 mm rain, while the suburbs notched 44.6 mm, with the south Mumbai bearing the brunt of the downpour.
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