IMD issues red alert for 7 districts as heavy rain lash Odisha, deep depression moves towards coast

Keeping in view the IMD warnings, the state government deployed men and machinery in identified vulnerable districts to tackle the situation, an official said.

Bhubaneswar: Heavy rain continued to lash Odisha on Thursday as a deep depression moves towards the coast prompting the IMD to issue red alert of extremely heavy downpour for seven districts, orange warning for 16 and yellow alert for the remaining seven districts, officials said.

Almost all parts of the state have received heavy rain since Wednesday, especially the coastal and southern region.

Manorama Mohanty, the director of Meteorological Centre here said the IMD has issued red alert for Puri, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Kalahandi and Kandhamal where extremely heavy rainfall of above 20 cm may be experienced at isolated places till 8.30 AM on Friday.

The director said that the 16 districts have been categorised under Orange Alert where heavy to very heavy rainfall of 7 cm to 20 cm could be received till Friday morning. The districts are Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Bolangir, Sonepur, Boudh, Angul, Dhenkanal, Nayagarh, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur and Kendrapara.

Similarly, yellow alert of 7 cm to 11 cm rainfall in forecast in seven other districts in the western region of the state, Mohanty said.

In a statement, the IMD said, “The Deep Depression over westcentral and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 13 kmph and lay centered at 8.30 am. The system lays at about 160 km south-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha), 170 km east of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 200 km south of Puri (Odisha), 250 km east-northeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 280 km south-southwest of Paradip (Odisha).”

“It is very likely to continue to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining Andhra Pradesh coasts between Gopalpur and Paradip by night of October 2,” the IMD said.

Depression is a condition that follows a well-marked low pressure and precedes a cyclonic storm, typically resulting in heavy rainfall and gusty winds, according to weather experts.

Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea along and off the Odisha coast till October 3.

“Under the influence of the deep depression, squally wind speed reaching 55-65-kmph gusting to 75 kmph is very likely to prevail over central and adjoining north Bay of Bengal on October 2,” Mohanty said adding that the wind intensity would gradually decline.

The IMD has also suggested hoisting of ‘Local Cautionary Signal No-III’ (LC-3) at all ports in the state.

Meanwhile, revenue department sources said that reports of landslide were received from Gajapti district as a result of heavy rain.