The skies were dark — almost black — at midday in parts of Orissa state, which will bear the brunt of the cyclone, and by mid-afternoon the winds were so strong that they could blow over grown men. Along the coast, seawater was pushing inland, swamping villages where many people survive as subsistence farmers in mud and thatch huts.

By Friday evening, some 600,000 people had been moved to higher ground or shelters in Orissa, said Surya Narayan Patro, the state’s top disaster management official.