Rain lashed eight southern Odisha districts as cyclone ‘Montha’ in the Bay of Bengal intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on Tuesday morning, IMD said.
Keeping in view the impending situation, the Odisha government has evacuated people from low-lying areas and also hilly terrain prone to landslides in the eight districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Kandhamal and deployed 140 rescue teams (over 5,000 personnel) of NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Service.
The administration has already announced the closure of schools and anganwadi centres in nine districts till October 30, while East Coast Railway has announced cancellation, diversion, and short termination of some trains operating in the Waltair region and connected routes. The leave of government employees has also been cancelled till October 30. The administration has also sealed all sea beaches to prevent tourists and local people from entering the A beaches, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) DK Singh said.
The people evacuated from vulnerable places are being housed in over 1,400 cyclone shelters opened in the eight districts where food and other arrangements have been made, officials said, adding that pregnant women are shifted to nearby hospitals.
The state government has advised fishermen not to venture into the Bay of Bengal, along and off the Odisha coast, till October 29.
The weather agency also suggested hoisting of local cautionary signal (LC-III) No-III at Gopalpur Port and Distant Warning Signal No-II (DW-II) at Paradip, Dhamra, Puri, Chhatrapur and Chandbali ports of OdishaChief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi is likely to review the situation later in the day, an official said.
The IMD in its latest bulletin said: “The cyclonic storm ‘Montha’ over westcentral Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 15 kmph during past 6 hours, intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centered at 5.30 am about 190 km south-southeast of Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 270 km south-southeast of Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), 340 km south-southwest of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 550 km south-southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha).”
Montha means fragrant flower or beautiful flower in the Thai language.
The system is likely to continue to move north-northwestwards and cross the Andhra Pradesh coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam around Kakinada during the evening/night of Tuesday as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph, said Dr Manorama Mohanty, director of the Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar.
For Tuesday, the IMD has issued red warning (take action) as it has forecast scattered heavy to very heavy falls (7 to 20 cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (over 20 cm) very likely to occur at isolated places in the districts of Malakangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, and Ganjam.
Similarly, orange warning (Be Prepared to take action) of heavy to very heavy rainfall (7 to 20 cm) was also issued for the districts of Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Kandhmal, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Bolangir, Sonepur, Boudh, Khurda, Puri, and Bargarh districts.
Yellow Warning (Be Aware) of heavy rainfall (7 to 11 cm) was also forecast for the day in the districts of Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, and Sundergarh.
Over 2,000 disaster relief centres opened
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday said his government was well prepared to face the challenges posed by cyclone ‘Montha’ and has opened over 2,000 disaster relief centres in eight southern districts for people likely to be impacted by the severe cyclonic storm.
He said 11,396 people have shifted to 2,048 disaster relief centres opened by the state government.
Majhi said this after reviewing the preparedness of the state government at a high-level meeting attended by Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari, Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, DGP Y B Khurania and other senior officials.
“As per IMD forecast, ‘Montha’ will make landfall in Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha will certainly be impacted. The state will receive extremely heavy rainfall and comparatively less intense wind,” Majhi said.
The CM said that the state government has taken all precautionary measures to achieve its goal of “Zero Casualty”. He said that evacuation of people from low-lying areas and hilly terrain is still continuing in vulnerable places of eight districts, such as Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Kandhamal. These districts would receive extremely heavy rain for which mitigation plans are made, he said.
Of the identified 2,693 pregnant women, as many as 1,871 would be mothers, have so far been shifted to hospitals and another batch of 822 women in the advance stage of pregnancy would be brought to the health centre by Tuesday evening, the CM said.
Majhi said the state government has further augmented preparedness by deploying 153 rescue teams in the possible impact districts.
More than 6,000 well-trained and skilled personnel of NDRF (5 teams), ODRAF (30 teams) and Fire Service (123 teams) have already taken position in different districts. The state has also kept more such rescue teams on standby for any emergency situation, he said.
The CM said the tourists are denied entry to destinations like Deomali and Mahendragiri hills, and restrictions are imposed on the visit of people to different sea beaches across the coastline.
He said the schools and anganwadi centres are closed in nine districts till October 30 in the wake of the cyclone situation.
Asked whether the state government has sought any assistance from the Centre, Majhi said, “The Centre has assured all help if required. At present, the situation could be managed by the available resources with the state. Therefore, we have not sought any assistance now. However, if required, there is no such problem in getting help from the Centre.”
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said the Indian Coast Guard has scanned the Bay of Bengal and confirmed that there are no fishing or any other vessels in the sea under the impact of Cyclone Montha.
Meanwhile, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday reviewed the cyclone Montha preparedness with the top officials of East Coast Railway (ECoR) and South-Central Railway (SCR) through video conferencing and directed officials to ensure passenger safety, train regulation, restoration planning, and coordination with local administrations and disaster management agencies.
In view of cyclone ‘Montha’ and to ensure the safety of passengers, ECOR has cancelled 42 trains, diverted two trains and short-terminated/short-originated five trains, and rescheduled eight trains, an official note said.
In a video message, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik urged people to cooperate with the administration in tackling cyclone ‘Montha’.
“You know the storm Montha is coming. We have successfully faced many storms in the past. So don’t be afraid. Be alert. Give full cooperation to the administration. My request to our BJD workers, brothers and sisters, is to be with the people in this time of crisis and help them. We have always been fighting various disasters together. This time too, let’s fight the storm together,” Patnaik said.
