Cyclone Gulab moving towards northern tip of coastal Andhra Pradesh; Jagan govt braces for Sunday night landfall

As the cyclonic storm Gulab continued to move towards the northern tip of coastal Andhra Pradesh, the Jaganmohan Reddy government begun preparing for the impact of landfall, expected on Sunday night.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the storm over the Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards at 10 kmph speed on Saturday night and was lying about 270 km east-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 330 km east of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) on Sunday dawn.

“Gulab is likely to move nearly westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh - south Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur, as a cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 75-85 kmph gusting to 95 kmph, around mid-night of 26th September,” according t the IMD bulletin at 8:30 am.

Read | Deep depression intensifies into Cyclone Gulab, IMD issues 'orange' alert for Andhra Pradesh, Odisha

A tidal wave of about 0.5 m height above the astronomical tide is likely to inundate low lying areas of Srikakulam, Sompeta, Vizianagaram, and Ganjam districts during the time of landfall. Fishermen are advised not to venture into east-central and adjoining northeast Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.

Due to the cyclone, areas in south Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh could receive extremely heavy rainfall on Sunday. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places in Telangana while north interior Odisha and Chhattisgarh will get heavy rain, the weather forecast said.

Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy reviewed the cyclone preparedness on Saturday evening, and an alert was sounded in three north coastal AP districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. About 86,000 families in these three districts have been identified as living in low-lying areas and the officials mapped them with specific high-ground cyclone shelters.

While one SDRF and NDRF team each is positioned at Visakhapatnam, two NDRF teams are deployed at Srikakulam.

All the 76 Mandal Emergency Operation Centres, 145 multipurpose cyclone centers, eight tourist locations connected to the District and State Emergency Operation Centres with emergency warning communication systems are activated.

Officials said that the services of the village/ward volunteers could be utilised for disaster management and related activities in the affected areas.

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