Potentially catastrophic cyclone Phailin, size of Katrina, headed for India.

Potentially catastrophic cyclone Phailin, size of Katrina, headed for India.(Wapo).

Over the last day, a cyclone over the Bay of Bengal has explosively strengthened as it marches towards the east coast of India, presenting a clear and present danger to the country of over a billion people. In the last 18 hours, Phailin’s peak winds have increased an astonishing 80 mph (or 70 knots), a rare rate of intensification.

“Based on satellite estimates, maximum sustained winds are now easily around 160 mph (140 knots),” says Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at WeatherBell.com, a private forecasting services company. Those wind speeds would make Phailin the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane, capable of catastrophic damage.
Phailin is not only intense, but also large. “It’s equivalent to Katrina in size,” Maue says. The storm is headed steadily northwest, on an unavoidable collision course with India’s east coast. Landfall is expected Saturday afternoon or evening local time (Saturday morning EDT), northeast of Visakhapatnam, on its current track provided by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Related: Cyclone Phailin 'may be worse than Katrina' that hit US in 2005

Cyclone #Phailin: Disaster could be unprecedented, 64000 people being evacuated, Andhra Pradesh CM tells NDTV.Updates http://ndtv.in/17ttKpa