BHUBANESWAR: Cyclone Phailin, packing heavy rains and wind speeds of 210 kph, slammed into the Indian eastern coastal town of Gopalpur in Odisha shortly after 9 p.m. on Saturday killing at least five people and forcing about 700,000 into overcrowded shelters.

Phailin was expected to remain a “very severe cyclonic storm” into the early hours of Sunday before steadily weakening as it moves inland in the states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

Phailin’s rain and wind could affect 12 million people, weather and disaster management officials said. Some forecasts said the storm lost some of its strength before reaching the coast, but it remained India’s strongest since a typhoon killed 10,000 people in the same region 14 years ago.

Heavy rain lashed fishing villages, and wind uprooted trees. Satellite images showed a vast spiral shaped storm that filled most of the Bay of Bengal. A US Navy forecast said Phailin’s gusts could reach 296 kph.

Jagdesh Dasari, a local leader in the fishing village of Mogadhalupadu near where the storm struck said police had to order villagers to leave mud and thatch huts for a school building as night fell. Similar hold-outs were reported along the poor coast, where people were afraid of losing belongings.

In the first reported deaths, falling trees killed four people, while another died when the walls of her mud house collapsed. Electricity went out in several towns, including Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar.

Large waves pounded beaches and villagers told a television station that surging sea levels has pushed water several hundred feet inland in low-lying areas.

Higher sea levels caused by cyclones, known as storm surges, can cause the most destruction. Phailin was forecast to drive sea levels 11 feet higher at its peak.