While severe thunder showers and heavy winds for hours together literally flooded the city on Wednesday evening which many believed to be the impact of an approaching cyclone formed a 1,000 odd km away near Andaman Islands, Met officials in the city clarified that the rainfall was only the result of an upper air cyclonic circulation over Telangana.
The city received 8 cm rainfall on Wednesday evening. ‘’The cyclonic formation is 1200 km away from Vizag coast. Today’s rain was only due to an upper air circulation over Telangana,” said a Met official.
However, the state stands on the brink of a major calamity with the Met department having confirmed a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 175-185 kmph to hit the East coast between Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam district and Paradeep in Odisha coast by Saturday night.
According to a bulletin issued by the Met department, the deep depression on Wednesday lay over North Andaman sea lay centered at about 1,200 km East-South East of Visakhapatnam. The bulletin said, the system would intensify further into a cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours and would move West-North West wards and cross Andaman Islands near Mayabandar by Wednesday noon as a cyclonic storm.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday who held a review meeting with ministers and top officials asked the district officials to evacuate people to safer areas whenever necessary and asked the power officials to be on high alert.
As a precautionary measure, round-the-clock control room has been opened in the Secretariat. The telephone numbers are 040-23456005/23451034. District collectors of all nine coastal districts have been instructed to open control rooms. The CM gave the go-ahead to officials to request for helicopters, boats and coast guard services in advance.
Kiran Reddy expressed concern that the power situation may worsen due to the cyclone.
All major city roads were inundated with traffic coming to a standstill while rains lashed across the city. Jubilee Hills, Somajiguda, Erramanzil, Mehdipatnam, Ameerpet, Raj Bhavan Road, Chaderghat, Malakpet Bridge, Musheerabad, and Dilsukhnagar were some of the affected roads leading to traffic snarls for hours.