Around 3.5 million households in the state of Odisha were left without electricity for days after Cyclone Fani, one of the worst storms to hit India since 1999, made landfall in the state last week. US space agency NASA released before-and-after pictures of twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack which shows the power outage in some of the worst affected areas in the state.  
Cyclone Fani, which had intensified as an extremely severe cyclonic storm, made landfall across the coast of Puri in the morning of May 3, with its wind speed at 200kmph. The storm lay a trail of destruction as it crossed through the state to enter West Bengal, and eventually Meghalaya and Bangladesh. At least 40 people were killed in the cyclone, left a hundred others homeless in the cities of Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Khurda, NASA noted in its website. 
 The Home Ministry on Wednesday stated that the power situation in eight of the nine cyclone-hit districts of the state had become better. A statement by the home ministry said, "The state government has informed the Centre that situation in eight out of nine districts has improved and power and telecom services are gradually picking up in the worst-affected areas of Puri and Bhubaneswar.”