The landfall of ‘Cyclone Gulab’ began on Sunday evening. Under the influence of the system, some districts witnessed light to moderate rainfall.“The cloud bands have touched coastal regions and, thus, the landfall process has commenced over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south coastal Odisha,” the IMD said.
The system would cross the coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur, 25 km to the north of Kalingapatnam, during the next three hours with maximum sustained wind speed of 75-85 kmph gusting and maximum up to 96 kmph during the next three hours, the weather office added. Odisha Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena said, “After 12 PM today, the cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal moved towards the landmass at 25 km per hr from 17 km per hr, the speed at which it was moving earlier. The cyclone made the landfall three hours ahead of the expected time.”“So far, not much of wind action was reported by any of the districts in the State.
Intermittent mild to moderate rainfall is being reported from a few districts. However, the district administrations are advised to remain watchful till Monday afternoon as wind speed and rainfall may increase anytime.” Jena further said the Gajapati, Rayagada and Koraput district administrations have been alerted for possible landslides. Following the direction, the ghat roads have been sealed in Ganjam and Gajapati, with which vehicular communications were affected. So far, 16,000 people, including 600 pregnant women and elderly people, have been evacuated from vulnerable areas in different districts to cyclone shelters and other safe places.“Most of people are reluctant to be evacuated ascyclone has not affected State much so far,” SRC added.