Cyclone Gulab: Impact ‘Marginal’ In Odisha, Says SRC

Bhubaneswar: The impact of Cyclone Gulab in Odisha has been marginal, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena said on Monday.

The SRC told the media that the cyclonic storm lay centred over Malkangiri district after landfall on Sunday night. The system turned into a deep depression later and would weaken into a depression by Monday afternoon and cross Odisha, he added.

Jena said barring heavy rainfall in south Odisha districts, there has been no information on gale wind at any place.

“While there has been a moderate to heavy rainfall in Gajapati district, the highest rainfall of 148 mm was recorded in Pottangi block of Koraput district,” Jena said.

Maintaining that there was no major damage at any place, he said the road communication was disrupted due to the overflowing of rainwater from hill streams.

He further said road communication in Malkangiri district was disrupted after big trees fell on the roads. However, these roads were cleared of trees on Monday morning.

Referring to the overflowing of water on NH-16 at Sinkaram (Sunki), he said eight families living in the low-lying area were shifted to safety at the LAMPS office.

Jena said there has been no report of death in any of the seven districts in south Odisha due to the timely evacuation of people.

“Before the landfall, the district administrations had shifted 46,075 people from the vulnerable areas to 1189 cyclone shelters. Besides, 1533 pregnant women were shifted to the cyclone shelters and admitted some of them to the PHCs and CHCs,” the SRC said.

Jena said the collectors of the south Odisha districts will submit their reports on  cyclone damage in five days.