Cyclonic Storm To Cross Odisha Coast Tonight, Govt Alerts Five Districts

Bhubaneswar: With the deep depression over the east-central Bay of Bengal concentrating into a cyclonic storm on Thursday afternoon, the Odisha government has asked the collectors of five coastal districts to stay on high alert.

Presiding over a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat here in the evening, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed the departments concerned to make necessary provision for adequate stock of relief materials in the districts, which will be affected by the cyclonic storm. He also directed the Revenue and Disaster Management Department to ensure that there is no loss of life.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, said that the maximum impact of the cyclonic storm will be on the five coastal districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri.

“We are closely monitoring the situation. We have informed the collectors of these five districts, particularly Ganjam and Puri to shift the people of the low-lying and vulnerable areas to safer places at the earliest. We have also given specific instruction to the Energy Department to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the hospitals and supply of piped drinking water. Accordingly, the department has asked the power distribution companies (Discoms) Southco and Cesco,” Padhi said.

He, however, said that the people need not panic as it is not a major cyclonic storm like the Super Cyclone, Cyclone Phailin and Cyclone Hudhud.

Meanwhile, in an evening release by the Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the deep depression, which lies at about 130 km south-east off the Gopalpur coast is gradually moving towards the west. It will concentrate into a cyclonic storm in the next six hours and cross between Kalingapatnam coast of north Andhra Pradesh and Gopalpur coast by midnight on Thursday.

The release also said that during the landfall of the cyclonic storm, the wind speed will be about 60-70 kmph with gusting of 80 kmph.

Due to the strong wind accompanied by extremely heavy rainfall, there is a possibility of damage to kuchcha houses and disruption of power in the five districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri.

Due to inclement weather, fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea on Thursday and Friday as the sea would be very rough.

Apart from this, danger signal no-3 has been hoisted in all the ports of Odisha.