Half a million evacuated as super Cyclone Phailin heads for India Waves pound India as Cyclone Phailin approaches "I've got faint memories of the 1999 super cyclone," said Apurva Abhijeeta, a 23-year-old engineering student engineer, from the coastal town of Puri, 50 miles from the state capital Bhubaneswar, and lying within the area expected to be enveloped by the 90-mile danger zone. I dread this Phailin. It's as if the world is coming to an end. All week residents have watched news programmes describing how Phailin was gaining strength at sea. Officials have been stockpiling food and setting up emergency shelters as waves began rising along the coast and the cyclone turned towards shore. Satellite pictures showed the turbulent weather system spanning nearly 1,000 miles, almost filling the Bay of Bengal. US forecasters compared it in size to Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,200 people in 2005. Its warm waters at the end of monsoon season have triggered some of the deadliest storms in history, including one in 1970 that killed as many as 500,000 people in Bangladesh. The predicted path takes Phailin through more than 90 towns and 35,000 villages. Plans for celebrations to mark a major religious festival were cancelled, as a high alert was issued. Instead terrified locals moved inland, cramming into motorised rickshaws and overcrowded buses as they sought out higher ground. Others huddled in temples. The sky stayed black. Heavy waves surged along the coast and coconut trees were bent almost double as winds strengthened through the day. By early afternoon, coastal towns and villages were deserted. In Gopalpur, tourist hotels closed and patients transferred from the local hospital amid a mass evacuation of the town's 8,000 residents. Roads were swamped by rain water and blocked by fallen electricity pylons as winds grew to 100mph. Nine-foot high waves inundated slum areas, destroying simple mud homes used by fishing families. Thatched and tin roofs were swept away by high winds even before the cyclone hit land. Srikant Kumar, 47, said people simply decided to abandon their homes and head for safety. "People are not taking any risk and moving away from the sea," he said. Elsewhere, the sea surged inland by as much as 130 feet. Large scale electricity blackouts were reported up and down the coast and phone lines were cut. US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii forecast maximum sustained winds of 167 miles Some 600,000 people had been moved to higher ground or shelters in Orissa, which is expected to bear the brunt of the cyclone, said Surya Narayan Patro, the state's top disaster management official. Cyclone Phailin will provide a stern test of whether officials have made good on promises to be better prepared this time. Authorities were roundly criticised for a poor response to floods in the Himalayan region earlier in the monsoon season. This time they say they are ready. An air force C-17 transporter arrived in Bhubaneswar on Saturday carrying medical supplies and rations. The government said it had 18 helicopters on standby ready to help. Marri Shashidhar Reddy, vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Agency, said it was one of the biggest evacuations in India's history, and had been aided by improved early warning systems. "We will be on a war footing," he said in the capital New Delhi. All day, forecasters and disaster agencies released dire warnings as the mass evacuation gathered pace. The Indian Meteorological Department said Phailin would bring storm surges 10ft above normal tides with winds of 130-135mph, putting it one class down from the most powerful "super cyclone." While local officials said they believed the cyclone would decrease in intensity by the time it hit land, others said warm sea temperatures would only increase its fury. The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii predicted winds of 167mph with gusts of up to almost 200mph. "If it's not a record it's really, really close," said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. Naveen Patnaik, Orissa's chief minister, issued repeated appeals for people to cooperate with officials as they order people to leave their homes. Everyone from the village to the state headquarters have been put on alert," he said. Locals from Chatrapur feel the beginnings of Cyclone Phailin on the east Indian coast (AP) Humanitarian agencies said they were preparing to deliver first aid and longer-term care. Andy Gleadle, director of programme performance at International Medical Corps, said initial injuries would be from falling trees and flying debris, followed by casualties from the storm surge of seawater in low-lying coastal areas. "Then you see a huge impact on infrastructure, roads, houses and really makes it very difficult to get humanitarian aid in to people who need it," he said. People will have lost their homes, reserves of food, their livelihoods so the real challenge will be getting those basics thing in that people need - shelter, food, water and access to medical care. The children's charity World Vision said its teams on the ground were already seeing signs of the storm. Dharmendra Naik, manager of its programmes in Jagathsinghpur district, said: "Our staff along the coast have been seeing rain falling continuously and winds pick up. People have been trying to stock up on essentials and that has caused the price of many items to be driven higher.