Bhubaneswar: The date of Cyclone Montha landfall almost coinciding with the catastrophic 1999 Super Cyclone, which had struck Odisha coast on October 29 with wind speeds of up to 250 kmph, had led people to apprehend the worst.
Eight districts in the state were put under red alert and 19,000 people evacuated to ensure their safety amid waring of extremely heavy rain and strong winds.
However, the system went southward and crossed the coast around Narasapur area, about 100 km south of Kakinada, the initially predicted landfall point which was around 200 km from Malkangiri.
Amid the cyclone’s chaos, one incident stood out as a whimsical highlight: the massive ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 balloon, which vanished from Visakhapatnam, was discovered in Malkangiri. The enormous tethered balloon, erected near the ACA-VDCA International Cricket Stadium to celebrate the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup, drifted northward unnoticed by powerful gusts that struck the city on Monday night.
On Tuesday afternoon, residents of Neredupalli village in Malkangiri noticed a strange object tangled in a tree—a huge balloon adorned with cricket motifs, the ICC emblem, and the name Visakhapatnam. “We spotted the balloon dangling from a tree and swaying around noon. It was astonishing to find something from Vizag here in our village. We carefully retrieved it and set it aside,” villager Mohan Babu told TNIE.
The balloon’s joyride brought a welcome spark of amusement to locals and cricket enthusiasts alike even as the severe cyclonic storm left a trail of destruction in both states.