Orange Alert: Asani won’t make landfall, but heavy rainfalls expected in north coastal Andhra

North coastal Andhra Pradesh is expected to receive heavy rainfall and squally winds—up to the speed of 60 kmph on Tuesday and Wednesday. This heavy to very heavy rainfall, as predicted by the meteorological department, is due to the atmospheric impact of Cyclone ‘Asani’.

On Monday afternoon, the severe cyclonic storm was centred over west central Bay of Bengal, 410 km southeast of Visakhapatnam, and 590 km south of Puri.

It is predicted to move towards coasts of north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha till Tuesday.

“It might come about 200 km close to the shore at Kalingapatnam, but the system would not make landfall,” S Stella, director of the meteorological centre at Amaravati, told DH.

The cyclonic system is very likely to re-curve and move towards northwest Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast. It could weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours.

However, the Indian Meteorological Department has issued an Orange Alert from East Godavari to Srikakulam districts (i.e. up to the Odisha border) for the next two days.

Accordingly, Andhra Pradesh government has opened control rooms and drafted personnel for coordination, and precautionary evacuation measures, if needed.

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has put in place plans for early restoration of train traffic and railway tracks, in case they are affected by the cyclone or heavy rains. Round-the-clock disaster management cells have been opened at Visakhapatnam, Khurda Road and Sambalpur.

ECoR officials said that diesel locomotives were kept in position for utilisation during electricity failure, adding they are “keeping a watchful eye at all the stations on the Howrah-Chennai Main Line.”