Ahmedabad/Mumbai: I80 of the 273 personnel on board Bare ‘P305’ were rescued till late Tuesday evening after a vessel sank 35 nautical miles from Mumbai (in the Mumbai Offshore Development Area) during Cyclone Tauktae, the Indian Navy said today. Earlier on May 17, 2021, on receipt of a request for assistance for a Barge ‘P305’ adrift off Heera Oil Fields in Bombay High area with 273 personnel onboard, INS Kochi was sailed with despatch to assess the situation and render assistance, as required.
The Navy said search and rescue operations for Barge P305 continued through the night by INS Kochi & INS Kolkata in extreme weather conditions and very rough seas. Offshore Support Vessel Energy Star and Great Ship Ahalya too joined the effort. 132 personnel were rescued so far in extremely challenging circumstances.
Later today, Indian Naval Ships Beas, Betwa and Teg joined INS Kochi and Kolkata for undertaking Search and Rescue (SAR) operations for Barge P-305. SAR had also been augmented with P8I and naval helicopters, who continue to undertake aerial search in the area.
In another operation, an Indian Navy Seaking helicopter was launched to rescue crew of GAL Constructor, which ran aground North of Mumbai. The helo rescued 35 crew members of GAL Constructor.
SAR efforts were also in progress off the coast of Gujarat for three vessels namely Support Station 3, Great Ship Aditi and Drill Ship Sagar Bhushan, which are 15-20 nautical miles South East off Gujarat coast (Pipavav). INS Talwar today arrived in the area and took over the duties of ‘On-Scene Coordinator’ for coordination of the SAR effort. The Western Naval Command, in coordination with ONGC and Directorate-General shipping, diverted five tugs to render assistance. Great Ship Aditi and Support Station 3 were able to drop anchor. Meanwhile, OSV Samudra Sevak and SV Cheel were connected to manoeuvre Sagar Bhushan, and the situation at present appeared to be stable, the Navy said.
The sea continues to be extremely rough with sea state 4-5 and winds 25-30 knots (approx 35 – 55 kmph), posing a challenge to the ships and aircraft involved in SAR operations.
#CycloneTauktae#Update
SAR Ops Barge P305.
177 personnel rescued so far.
First batch of 03 Rescuees brought in by #IndianNavy Helo.#INSKochi & #INSKolkata along with MV Offshore Energy & MV Ahalya continue with #SAR in extremely challenging circumstances.@DefenceMinIndia pic.twitter.com/Jiede7ucEu— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) May 18, 2021
With high winds and rain continuing today off Mumbai, the Indian Coast Guard pressed into service its helicopters to airlift the rescued persons from ship to the shore today morning and by 2 pm was able to airlift 55 of the marooned crew to shore.
The biggest cyclone to hit the region in recent times claimed lives in Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Apart from the Maharashtra deaths, another eight people died in Karnataka as Tauktae brushed past the southern state over the weekend. State officials said over 120 villages in seven coastal districts were affected. Seven people also died in Kerala and nearly 1,500 houses were damaged, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted late Monday.
Also read: First Person: On the day of Tauktae in Mumbai
Meanwhile, battling against the surging Covid pandemic, Gujarat was faced with the twin problem of meeting the threat posed by Tauktae cyclonic storm but managed to keep the human casualty to the minimum because of the elaborate precautionary measures taken by the state government evacuating more than two lakhs people from the coastal areas in the last three days.
Though hit by one of the severest cyclonic storm in the last three decades and the Gir forest region being in the eye of the storm, there was still no report of any loss of Asiatic Lions, the pride of Gujarat and India, official sources said on Tuesday morning.
The Met Department said that at 11.30 am today, (Tuesday May 18, 2021), the severe cyclonic storm Tauktae had weakened into a cyclonic storm and lay centred over Saurashtra, near Latitude 22.0°N and Longitude 71.5°E, about 165 km southwest of Ahmedabad. Gale wind speed reaching 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph is likely to prevail over Gulf of Khambat and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea during next six hours and will likely reduce gradually thereafter. Tidal wave above astronomical tide is also likely to inundate coastal areas during next three hours over Anand, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Diu and Bhavnagar, Bharuch, Souther parts of Ahmedabad today.
The Chief Minister Vijay Rupani after reviewing the situation on Tuesday morning with his officials said three persons were killed in the storm-related incidents including wall collapse in the worst-hit districts of Amreli, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. The police, however, later said an elderly woman was killed in Patan due to fall of an electricity pole on her in the storm on Monday evening.
“Thanks to the preparatory works carried out by the administration in the last three days ever since Gujarat was alerted about the impending storm, we succeeded in averting major human losses,” Rupani said while lamenting the loss of three human lives. “Our aim was zero human loss and minimum damages to public and private property and we have by and large succeeded in achieving the goal,” Rupani said.
Also read: “Extremely severe” cyclone “Tauktae” to make a landfall in Gujarat coast today evening
The Additional Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar, who was monitoring the movement of Tauktae which hit Gujarat coast near Diu at a velocity of over 185 kilometres per hour on Monday night, said the storm was located around 210 kms from Ahmedabad in the Saurashtra region and moving in the north north-westerly direction at a much diminished speed of about eight kms per hour. He said under its impact the rainfall would continue almost all over the state throughout the day on Tuesday.
“The system is expected to weaken into the ‘Cyclonic Storm’ by afternoon hours of Tuesday and further weaken into a depression by the end of the day,” a senior Met official said.
First video after landfall of #cyclonetaukate in UNA, Gujarat near DIU. #Cyclone #CycloneTauktaeUpdates #taukatecyclone #Gujarat #CycloneAlert #tauktae pic.twitter.com/9otgXgc3ZN
— Ananya Sharma (@ananya_sharma12) May 17, 2021
The storm left a trail of destruction on the coastal areas of the state with Gir-Somnath, Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts bearing the main brunt. Several areas in the coastal regions of Gujarat plunged into darkness on Monday night due to power outage, while a large number of trees, electric poles and mobile towers got uprooted amid the high speed winds.
Temporary structures were also destroyed in the strong wind, while heavy rainfall in the affected regions caused flooding and tree falls led to blocked roads.
Army personnel and other rescue teams immediately swung into action to clear the roads by removing trees and poles, and restoring damaged structures.
According to preliminary estimates, more than 16,500 hutments were destroyed or damaged, at least 40,000 trees and over 1,100 electric poles were uprooted, nearly 200 roads were damaged and nearly 2,500 villages in the coastal areas lost power supply.
Rupani, however, claimed that by morning itself power supply had been restored to over 800 villages and work was on to re-connect he remaining villages while more than 40 motorable roads had already been restored for normal traffic.
Rupani said none of the 1,400 odd Covid-19 designated hospitals in the state suffered any damage or cause problems for the patients because of the precautionary measures taken in advance including installing generator sets and stocking liquid oxygen to avert any shortfall. He said 16 hospitals in various districts lost regular power supply but hospital activities continued normally with DG sets without causing any inconvenience to the patients and staff.
Nearly 190 talukas out of the 250 odd talukas in the state received rainfall under the impact of Tauktae since Monday night with 35 talukas in Amreli and Gir Somnath districts being the worst hit having received more 125 to over 200 m.m. rainfall overnight causing heavy destruction to the standing crops.
The worst-hit would be the mango, coconut and paddy crops in the storm and consequent heavy rainfall. Junagadh and Gir Somnath districts being known for the delicious “kesar” mangoes, suffered heavy damages in the storm while a large number of coconut trees along the entire 1,000 kms long coastal belt from Somnath to Bhavnagar were uprooted as the storm hit the Gujarat coast.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the chief ministers of affected states – Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan – and administrators of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli – to review the situation and offer help from the centre.
– Global Bihari Bureau
