Mumbai avoids brunt of cyclone that barrels into India's west coast

Mumbai escaped the brunt of a cyclone yesterday after winds changed direction and the storm made landfall further south on India’s western coast than expected, giving some respite to a metropolis already ravaged by coronavirus infections.

Cyclone Nisarga was initially forecast to be the first to batter Mumbai since 1948, prompting citizens to stay off the streets and secure their homes against gale-force winds and torrential rain.

“It landed a little (further) south than what we predicted. But Mumbai may experience bad weather until tomorrow,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, secretary at the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The cyclone barrelled into the western coast around 100 kilometers south of India’s financial capital with winds gusting up to 120 kilometers and hour.

Local media reported a few dozen incidents of trees being uprooted and vehicles damaged. But there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, officials said.

Authorities on Tuesday moved thousands of people away from coastal areas near Mumbai amid fears that the city, already hard hit by COVID-19 infections, could see its health care system further overwhelmed.

More than 100,000 other people were evacuated from the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

India’s largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, on Mumbai’s outskirts, closed for 24 hours.

Cyclones often skirt Mumbai, a metropolis of more than 20 million people, but every year during the June-September monsoon torrential rains hit the city.

Mumbai emergency services are struggling with the nation’s largest outbreak of COVID-19 cases. The city and its surrounding areas have so far reported roughly 55,000 infections and more than 1,700 deaths.

AFP