MUMBAI – There are 127 people missing today after a vessel adrift off the coast here sank during Cyclone Tauktae, said the Indian navy, as two ships and helicopters were deployed to assist in the search.
The vessel was carrying 273 people when it started drifting yesterday as strong winds battered the country’s western coast, sending huge waves crashing onto its shores and turning roads into rivers.
The Defence Ministry said 146 people were rescued from the ship, operated by a state-run oil company, with operations expected to continue throughout the day in “extremely challenging sea conditions”.
The colossal cyclone – the biggest to hit the region in decades – has claimed lives in Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat, as savage winds swept through flimsy homes and uprooted trees and electricity pylons.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated, while authorities here shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients in field hospitals “to safer locations”.
Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat late yesterday as an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” packing gusts of up to 185kph, said the Indian Meteorological Department.
It weakened to a “very severe cyclonic storm” by this morning.
The deadly weather system has exacerbated India’s embattled response to a coronavirus surge that is killing at least 4,000 people daily, and pushing the health system to breaking point. – AFP, May 18, 2021
