BHUBANESWAR: Odisha on Monday braced for heavy rainfall as cyclone ‘Michaung’ intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and moved closer to south Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north Tamil Nadu coasts. Light to moderate rainfall was recorded in parts of south and coastal Odisha under the influence of the system over Bay of Bengal on the day.
Issuing an alert, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated the storm, that moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph on Monday and laid centred over west central Bay of Bengal off south Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north Tamil Nadu coasts, around 80 km southeast of Nellore and 120 km north-northeast of Chennai in the evening, is likely to cross south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Machilipatnam, close to Bapatla as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 90-100 kmph and gusting upto 110 kmph around December 5 forenoon.
Officials at Met Centre, Bhubaneswar, said wind speed of up to 40-50 kmph with gusting up to 60 kmph may occur along and off Odisha coast December 5 evening onwards. Strong surface wind speed reaching upto 40kmph and gusting up to 50 kmph may also occur over Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada districts on December 5, the officials said.
Heavy rainfall, strong winds forecast for all southern dists
Similarly, heavy to very heavy rainfall, in the range of 7 to 20 cm is likely to occur in parts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati and Ganjam, while heavy rainfall in the range of 7 to 11 cm may occur in parts of Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Puri on December 5 and may continue till December 6 morning.
Keeping in view the heavy rainfall, fishermen have been advised not to venture into sea along and off Odisha coast till December 6. The IMD has also cautioned about possible waterlogging, damage to kutcha houses, roads and harvested crops in the affected areas and asked the administrations to take appropriate measures in this regard.
The district administration of Koraput, where rainfall activities under the influence of the storm started on Monday morning, is on high alert to deal with any exigency. All revenue and block officials of the district have been asked to remain alert for the next two days and directed to shift people from low-lying areas in Kotpad , Jeypore, Kundra and Borrigumma to safer places if needed.
In Ganjam, the district administration had cancelled the leave of officials of Agriculture department till December 7. Collector Dibyajyoti Parida also chaired an emergency meeting to review the preparedness.
Meanwhile, leaves of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation staff on December 6 have been cancelled by the civic body because of heavy rainfall alert. Mayor Sulochana Das asked officers and field staff to take measures against urban-flooding and water-logging in areas that had been identified as vulnerable during this year’s monsoon. The BMC has also decided to activate a 24X7 control room.