Cyclone Tauktae: India searches for missing dozens after storm sinks boats
- The navy rescued 177 of the 400 people on the two barges that sank off Mumbai’s coast during the cyclone – the biggest to hit the region in decades
- Cyclone Tauktae claimed lives in Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat as winds lashed homes and uprooted trees and power lines
The navy said it has rescued 177 of the 400 people on the two barges in the Arabian Sea. Three warships, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters joined the rescue operations and were scouring the sea, the navy said.
Both barges were working for Oil and Natural Gas Corp., the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India.
Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 210 kilometres per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state late on Monday. Four people were killed in the state, raising the storm’s total to 16.
Residents emerged from relief shelters on Tuesday to find debris strewn across roads, trees uprooted and electricity lines damaged. The coastguard rescued eight fishermen who were stranded at sea near Veraval, a fishing industry hub in Gujarat state.
In Maharashtra, six people were killed on Monday but the state’s capital, Mumbai, was largely spared from major damage even as heavy rains pounded the city’s coastline and high winds whipped its skyscrapers.
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Over the weekend, the cyclone killed six people in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa states as it moved along the western coast.