India Meteorological Department calls Titli, Luban cyclones “rarest of rare” occurrences
By Akshit Sangomla
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday called the formation of the two very severe cyclones—Titli and Luban—on two sides of the Indian mainland as ‘rarest of rare’ occurrences. The IMD also said the movement of both these storms was unique. While Titli changed its direction and moved towards the northeast after making a landfall, Luban too kept going in different directions over the 9 days that it travelled through the south-eastern Arabian Sea towards Yemen and Oman on the Gulf coast and then made landfall on October 13.
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[Titli] affected 16 out of the 30 districts in Odisha. More than 5.7 million people across 7,402 villages were affected, says the situation report prepared by Odisha’s special relief commissioner’s office. While the media reports say that 27 people died in the cyclone, the situation report mentions 18 as the death toll for one landslide incident. The landslide occurred in a tribal village called Baraghara in Gajapati district which is home to 74 families. The report mentions that when cyclone warnings were issued in the village by officials, 61 families moved out, but 13 did not budge. When a landslide occurred at 1am on October 11, 18 people died.
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Andhra Pradesh also faced considerable losses because of the cyclone. Nine people had died in the state till October 15, while one was injured and one fisherman was missing. The devastation was restricted to the two districts of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram in the state. The total affected population was almost 12.5 lakh spread across 872 villages and 40,000 houses worth more than Rs 400 crore were destroyed by cyclone Titli.
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