BHUBANESWAR, India — Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated parts of India’s eastern coast on Thursday as an “extremely severe” cyclone moved north through the Bay of Bengal, bringing fears of widespread destruction from heavy rain, powerful winds and storm surges in low-lying areas.

Cyclone Fani, classified by meteorologists as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall along the coast at 8 a.m. Friday after churning through the bay, which has produced many of the world’s deadliest tropical cyclones.

By late Thursday in India, Cyclone Fani had sustained winds of about 155 miles per hour, nearly in the range of a Category 5 hurricane, said Derrick Herndon, an associate researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. The World Meteorological Organization said the storm was “one of the most intense” in 20 years in the region.