Cyclone Fani Continues Tragic Storm Year in Indian Ocean.

Satellite view shows extremely powerful Cyclone Fani near the eastern
India coast a couple days ago. That small eye and those fineine banding
features in the clouds surrounding the eye indicate a very strong storm.

As expected, powerful Cyclone Fani struck eastern India on Friday, leaving a long trail of destruction and death.

As CNN reports, the cyclone caused at least seven deaths in eastern India, and that toll is expected to rise. Al Jazeera was reporting as many as 25 deaths as of Saturday morning.

Cyclones in the Indian Ocean are what we in the United States call hurricanes - they're the same thing.

Cyclone Fani made landfall as basically a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 125 mph near the city of Puri.  Videos of the storm are at the bottom of this post.

At least 1 million people in India were evacuated ahead of the storm.  While the storm is weakening some as it heads toward the northeast, it was expected to cause a devastating storm surge in low-lying Bangladesh, where 2.5 million people were evacuated, says CNN. 

All those evacuations and all that preparedness in advance of the cyclone doubtlessly saved a lot of lives.

Cyclone Fadi follows two cyclones that headed west this spring and slammed into Africa, causing humanitarian crises in Mozambique and surrounding nations.

Earlier this week, Cyclone Kenneth slammed into northern Mozambique, killing more than 40 people - and that toll is certain to rise. This was also a Category 4 storm. On the island of Ibo, pretty much all the homes were destroyed, or at the very least lost their roofs. Humanitarian workers say not nearly enough aid is coming in to help.

Crops are also destroyed, so the region will need food aid for some time to come.

Near-complete devastation from Cyclone Kenneth in
Mozambique. Photo by Tsvangirai Mukwazhi/AP

This was the first cyclone to hit northern Mozambique in modern times, so this one is pretty much beyond the pale.

Even before this crisis, southern and central Mozambique and surrounding nations were staggered by Cyclone Idai, which has killed more than 600 people.

That two powerful cyclones would hit Mozambique within six weeks is unprecedented. Some blame climate change.

Water in the Indian Ocean is trending warmer over the years and recent decades. The warmer the water, the more fuel for cyclones. That increases the chances they could form, and increases the chances that any cyclones that do form become stronger than they otherwise would be.

It's not proven, of course, that climate change has created all these cyclones in the Indian Ocean this year, but the situation is suspicious. I'm sure climate scientists will be looking more intensely at the Indian Ocean after this episode.

Back in India, Cyclone Fani made landfall during the day, allowing for some dramatic video footage.

Here's a compilation from Voice of America:



Video, apparently taken from a high rise, of metal roofs being torn from buildings, the weakened walls collapsing:



Here, the winds from the cyclone knock over a large construction crane on a high rise, crushing smaller buildings beneath. I hope nobody was in the smaller structures!