Cyclonic storm to hit Odisha, north Andhra tonight, says Met dept

A cyclonic storm developing over the south Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts is likely to cause very heavy rainfall at several parts of Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh from late Thursday night till Friday morning, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

There may be rainfall in parts of Telangana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, even parts of Madhya Pradesh and east Rajasthan, while the sea will be very rough and fishermen have been advised not to venture into northwest Bay of Bengal and along the Odisha, West Bengal and north Andhra Pradesh coasts over till Friday evening.

A deep depression has developed over west-central Bay of Bengal which moved west-northwestwards and lay centered about 290 km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam in coastal Andhra Pradesh and about 270 km southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha around 11.30 am on Thursday, the IMD said.

It is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm during next 12 hours and cross south Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts between Kalingapatnam and Puri around Thursday midnight with wind speed of 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph, IMD said in its cyclone bulletin.

“It’s a marginal cyclonic storm. We are not expecting major damage. Large scale evacuation is not needed but those in low lying areas and thatched hutments near the coast should be moved to safer places,” said M Mohapatra, director general (meteorology) at IMD.

The sea will be very rough over central and north Bay of Bengal and along Odisha, West Bengal and north Andhra Pradesh coasts during the next six to 12 hours. There will also be a storm surge of about 0.5 metres above astronomical tides which it is likely to inundate low-lying areas of districts of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesha and Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts in Odisha at the time of landfall, reported PTI.

There may be minor damage to power and communication lines due to breaking of branches and some damage to paddy crops, banana, papaya trees and orchards in affected areas--Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam of Andhra Pradesh, and Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri districts of Odisha.

Odisha’s special relief commissioner BP Sethi has already asked all concerned to remain alert, closely monitor the situation and keep the administrative machinery in full preparedness to meet any eventuality and ensure functioning of control room round-the-clock.

First Published: Sep 20, 2018 18:19 IST