Cyclone Tauktae | Five killed as gale force winds, rain pummel Kerala, Karnataka ‘Very Severe’ Cyclone Tauktae expected to cross Gujarat coast on May 17 evening. Gale-force winds, heavy rain and high tidal waves swept the coastal belt of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa as Cyclone Tauktae hurtled northwards towards Gujarat on Sunday, leaving at least five persons dead, damaging hundreds of houses, uprooting electricity poles and trees and forcing large-scale evacuation. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Tauktae, which has intensified into a “very severe cyclonic storm”, is likely to intensify further during the next 24 hours and reach the Gujarat coast on Monday evening. High wave warnings with flooding of low-lying areas and damage to property have been issued for Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Lakshadweep, and south Tamil Nadu. A joint bulletin issued by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in Hyderabad and IMD forecast “damage” over Porbandar, Amreli Junagarh, Gir Somnath, Botad and Bhavnagar, plus the coastal areas of Ahmedabad. An estimated 1.5 lakh people are being shifted from low-lying coastal areas in Gujarat while 54 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in the State. Maharashtra, too, is bracing for the cyclone as the Met Department predicted heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in north Konkan, Mumbai, Thane and Palghar, and extremely heavy rainfall in Raigad on Monday. Four deaths were reported from Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga districts. Roads in coastal districts were washed away and about 12 km of beachfront from Kulai to Sasihithlu in Dakshina Kannada district was eroded, leaving several houses in danger.