Scores missing at sea as cyclone tears up Indian west coast

The Indian Navy mounted a massive air and sea rescue mission on Tuesday for 81 oil workers and crew whose barge sank in heavy seas following a powerful cyclone that tore up the west coast killing at least 19 people.

Around 180 of those on board the barge, off the coast of Mumbai, were rescued from the huge waves as it sank, the navy said.

The cyclone has piled up pressure on authorities at a time when India is grappling with a staggering rise in coronavirus cases and deaths as well as a shortage of beds and oxygen in hospitals.

“This is one of the most challenging search and rescue operations I have seen in the last four decades,” Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, told Reuters partner ANI on Tuesday.

Navy spokesman Vivek Madhwal said waves were reaching 20 to 25 feet. “The winds are high and the visibility is low,” he said.

Three more barges have gone adrift near the Gujarat coast but the rescue operations were said to be under control.

Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to batter the west coast in two decades, ripped out power pylons, trees and caused house collapses killing at least 19 people, authorities said.

The storm made landfall in Gujarat state on Monday and is expected to weaken gradually into a deep depression overnight, the Indian Meteorological Department said. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said 160 state roads have been destroyed, 40,000 trees uprooted and several houses damaged.
Reuters, 18 May, 2021