Cyclone Hudhud batters India’s east, three dead

At least three people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of thousands have been evacuated from parts of eastern India as Cyclone Hudhud blasted the country’s eastern coastline with gusts of up to 195 kilometres an hour.

The port city of Visakhapatnam, home to two million people and a major naval base, was the worst hit as the cyclone made landfall. Television footage showed extensive damage, uprooted trees and damaged buildings.

The country’s meteorological department rated Hudhud as a very severe cyclonic storm that could pack gusts of 195 km/h and dump more than 24.5 cm of rain.

Heavy rainfall and strong gusts of wind are expected in the northern coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, which includes Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari along with the southern districts of Orissa.

Forecasters warned Hudhud would blow with full force for several hours more, before wind speeds halve by evening.

So far, disaster relief agencies have evacuated more than 150,000 people to minimise the risk of Hudhud while the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) has warned that it is strong enough to have a "high humanitarian impact" on nearly 11 million people,

The cyclone is similar in size to cyclone Phailin that struck the area exactly a year ago which caused the death of 53 people. When a huge storm hit the same area 15 years ago, 10,000 people died.