As many as 13 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, trees and damaging thousands of houses and roads.
In what was one of the worst cyclones that hit the state of Gujarat. Tauktae triggered heavy rains in many parts along its way from the Saurashtra coast to North Gujarat with as many as 46 talukas receiving over 100 mm of downpour. While 12 of them recorded 150 mm to 175 mm of rains.
Tauktae, characterised as an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Monday, has now weakened into a “cyclonic storm” and will gradually become a “deep depression” as it moves northwards, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Even as Tauktae’s intensity weakened, it left behind a trail of destruction with as many as 13 people losing their lives in different parts of Gujarat, including Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Patan, Amreli and Valsad.
Over 16,000 houses were damaged, more than 40,000 trees and over 70,000 electric poles uprooted, while 5,951 villages faced total power blackout due to the cyclonic storm in Gujarat.
PM Modi will visit Gujarat and Diu to review the situation by Cyclone Tauktae
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also visit Gujarat and Diu today to review the situation and damage caused by Cyclone Tauktae.
The Prime Minister will leave Delhi at 9.30 am today and land at Bhavnagar from where he will proceed for an aerial survey of Una, Diu, Jafarabad and Mahuva. He will also hold a review meeting at Ahmedabad after the aerial survey.
Meanwhile, Delhi and its adjoining areas also received light spells of rain on Wednesday under the impact of cyclone Tauktae which has now moved north-northeastwards across Rajasthan to west Uttar Pradesh after making landfall in Gujarat yesterday.
The rain brought down the temperature in the national capital to 23 degrees Celsius. Cyclone Tauktae has impacted the weather conditions in several parts of Northern India.