Cyclonic storm Maha to recurve towards Gujarat

The extremely severe cyclonic storm 'Maha' lying over the central Arabian sea, about 640 km from Porbandar coast, is likely to recurve towards Gujarat and make landfall between Union Territory of Diu and Porbandar, between November 6th night and 7th morning.

Weather officials predicted that the intensity of the storm is rapidly weakening and by the time it reaches Gujarat shore, the wind speed would not be more than 90 km per hour.

However, it will cause heavy rain in the coastal towns and will flood the low-lying areas, destroy crops, slums and kuchcha houses. Additional chief secretary, revenue department, Pankaj Kumar told reporters that all the affected district administrations are on an alert to tackle the situation.

He said that 15 teams of national disaster response force (NDRF) have already been deployed at vulnerable places while 15 other teams are awaiting deployment. He added that there were 12,600 fishermen in the sea and most of them have returned after warnings were issued.