Rain and wind batter Indian coast as storm approaches; three dead

Sruthi Gottipati and Jatindra Dash in Reuters: Rain and wind lashed India's east coast on Saturday, forcing about 450,000 people to flee to shelters as one of the country's largest cyclones closed in, threatening to cut a swathe of devastation through farmland and fishing hamlets.

Filling most of the Bay of Bengal, Cyclone Phailin was about 90 km (124 miles) off the coast by late afternoon and was expected to strike the coast by nightfall with winds of between 210 kph (130 mph) and 220 kph (137 mph).

The storm was expected to affect 12 million people, most of them in the densely populated states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, weather and disaster management officials said. Even before landfall, coconut trees in villages along the coast were bent and broken in the gusting wind. Electrical poles were brought down and roads were littered with debris.

In the first reported deaths, two people were killed by falling trees while a third when the walls of her mud house collapsed. Terrified children clung to their mothers as they sought shelter. Most towns along the coast were deserted but there were still some people trying to flee....

Cyclone Phailin's track, getting stronger as it approaches India. Created by Keith Edkins, public domain