Indian naval forces worked Wednesday to find survivors from the site of a barge sunk in a recent cyclone off the coast of Mumbai, while a second boat remains adrift.
“(The navy) continues with search and rescue in extremely challenging circumstances,” a naval representative wrote on Twitter.
As many as 177 of the 400 people believed to be on the barges during the cyclone have been located as of Tuesday, the navy announced, with the first batch of survivors arriving on land last night.
Meanwhile, three warships, helicopters and sea patrol planes continue to scour the area to locate barge crew members who were working on two Oil and Natural Gas Corporation boats at the time of the storm.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in India.
Cyclone Tauktae ripped through the Arabian Sea and made landfall in Gujarat, to the north of Mumbai, on Monday evening. 16 people have been reported dead as a result of the storm so far, though this number is likely to rise as rescue operations continue.
The cyclone, the largest to hit India in more than 20 years, sent gusts of wind across coastal regions at speeds of up to 130 miles per hour, according to weather authorities.
The cyclone claimed four lives in Gujarat, alongside six deaths in Maharashtra and a further six in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa along India’s western coast.
Leaving emergency shelters Tuesday, local residents found their homes damaged and streets littered with fallen trees and loose electrical lines.
For many people, the storm could not have come at a worst time. India remains flooded with COVID-19 cases and emergency services are already stretched thin.
