BEHRAMPUR, India — Mass evacuations spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend, officials said Sunday, as the country sorted through the wreckage of flooded towns, tangled power lines and tens of thousands of destroyed thatch homes.
Tropical Cyclone Phailin made landfall between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. local time (around midday U.S. Eastern time) Saturday near the town of Gopalpur, in eastern India's Odisha state. (Note: A tropical cyclone is what we call a hurricane in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans.
Remnants of Clyclone Phailin
The storm, the strongest to hit India in more than a decade, destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of crops, but more than 20 hours after it made landfall in Orissa state on the country's east coast, authorities said they knew of only 17 fatalities.
The final death toll is expected to climb further as officials reach areas of the cyclone-battered coast that remain isolated by downed communication links and blocked roads, but the evacuation of nearly 1 million people appeared to have saved many lives
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