State Recovers

DISASTER// Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Phailin (sapphire) was the strongest named cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, caused substantial damage in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, India, in early October 2013.

It was also the most intense cyclone that crossed Indian coast after the 1999 Odisha cyclone. The system was first noted as a tropical depression on October 4, 2013 within the Gulf of Thailand, to the west of Pnom Penh in Cambodia. Over the next few days, it moved westwards within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear, before as it passed over the Malay Peninsula, it moved out of the Western Pacific Basin on October 6.

It emerged into the Andaman Sea during the next day and moved westnorthwest into an improving environment for further development before the system was named Phailin on October 9, after it had developed into a cyclonic storm and passed over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands into the Bay of Bengal.