NEW DELHI // At least six people were killed on Sunday when Cyclone Hudhud made landfall on India’s eastern coast, unleashing winds of nearly 200kph.
Approaching from the Bay of Bengal, the cyclone hit Visakhapatnam, a major port and a city of two million residents, just before noon.
By then, nearly 370,000 people had been evacuated, from coastal areas in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, as a safety measure.
The damage to Visakhapatnam was “very serious”, K Hymavathi, the special commissioner for disaster management for the state of Andhra Pradesh, told Reuters.
Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, called the cyclone a “national calamity” and asked for immediate federal aid of 20 billion rupees (Dh1.2bn).
“The amount of damage is yet to be assessed,” Mr Naidu said. “Our priority is rescue and rehabilitation operations.”
The wind ripped roofs off houses, uprooted trees, and brought down electricity pylons, disrupting communications for much of the day. The sea pounded furiously over the port’s breakwater, sending massive waves crashing over the coastline.
"We can hear the wind hammering really hard on the windows of our apartment," Ajay Naidu, a sales executive living in Visakhapatnam, told The National Sunday morning, before phone lines went down. "If we're indoors, we'll be safe, I think. I hope nobody will venture out foolishly."
The most intense phase of the cyclone lasted nearly six hours, broken only by a brief afternoon lull.
By the evening, the storm had lost much of its energy, with wind speeds dropping to about 130kph, according to the Indian government’s meteorological department.
The torrential rain may yet wreak further havoc by flooding the rivers of southern Odisha.
Wind speeds are expected to drop further, to about 60kph, by Monday afternoon.
Hudhud brought back memories of Cyclone Phailin, which hit Odisha last October, with winds of nearly 260kph at its most intense.
Roughly a million people were displaced by Cyclone Phailin, and 27 people died – a relatively low death toll, given that nearly 10,000 people died in super-cyclone Odisha in 1999.
As with Phailin, the Indian government acted promptly in evacuating people who live and work near the coast. On Saturday, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, chaired an emergency meeting to review the states’ preparedness for Hudhud.
More than 2,000 personnel of the national disaster response force, split into 42 teams, were pressed into service. Air and train services were cancelled or diverted around the area of landfall. In Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, the government urged people to use cyclone shelters.
“You didn’t have cyclone shelters like this back in 1999,” said Jatin Singh, the chief executive of SkyMet, a private weather forecasting service. “We didn’t have many ways of forewarning for storms like this. Which is why you saw 10,000 people dying back then. I don’t think you’ll ever see that kind of death toll now.”
It will take three or four weeks to assess the economic damage, Mr Singh said.
“In all such storms, it’s usually the poor who get affected the most, especially in rural areas, where farms will be flooded.”
The meteorological department has predicted continuous rain in the area for at least two more days as the storm moves inland, in a north-westerly direction, while losing intensity.
Hudhud is expected to be downgraded into a depression on Monday.
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
The five pillars of Islam
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
