Woman delivers baby in fire service vehicle as cyclone ‘Amphan’ pounds Odisha

PTI, May 20, 2020, 2:13 PM IST

Kendrapara: A woman gave birth to a baby girl inside a fire service vehicle in Odisha’s Kendrapara district on Wednesday, May 20 amid the raging cyclone ‘Amphan’, an official said.

Both the mother and the newborn are healthy and have been shifted to Mahakalpada government-run community health center in the district,” Deputy Fire Officer PK Dash said.

“Janaki Sethi (20) was stranded in Jhanhara village amid the cyclonic storm,” Dash said.

“We received an SOS from the distressed family around 8 am. As fire brigade personnel proceeded, they faced hurdles with 22 trees uprooted along the stretch leading to the village. Braving strong winds and squally weather, they cleared the road and ferried the woman in the service vehicle,” he said.

“The woman went into labor midway through the journey,” Dash said, adding, the fire service personnel assisted her as she gave birth to the child.

As cyclone “Amphan” hurtled towards the coast, heavy downpour coupled with high-velocity winds pounded coastal Odisha, uprooting trees and flattening fragile structures, officials said.

More than 1.25 lakh people have so far been evacuated from low-lying coastal areas and the process of evacuation was still underway in some places like Balasore on Wednesday morning, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Jena said.