Indian and Bangladeshi authorities raced to complete the removal of more than one million people out of the path of an extreme cyclone that made landfall in eastern India on Friday.
"Landfall started at 0800 hrs IST (0230 GMT). Part of eye lies over land at 0830. Entire process of eye entering into land will be completed in next 2 hrs," India's Meteorological Department tweeted.
Major airports were closed in India's eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal and the railway network virtually closed down before the arrival of "extremely severe" Cyclone Fani - expected to be the biggest storm to hit the region in more than two decades - on Friday morning.
More than one million people in the two states have been ordered to leave their homes and the Bangladesh government separately issued evacuation orders for 19 coastal districts and put the army on standby.
"We are not able to know what's happening outside. There's darkness everywhere," Jyotirmayee Panda, a resident of Puri in Odisha, told Al Jazeera.
All flights and trains are cancelled in Odisha. Many passengers are waiting at Bhubaneswar airport and railway station.