ONGOLE (The Thursday Times) — Cyclone Murasu began crossing the coast of India’s Andhra Pradesh near Ongole early on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department said, the second cyclone to hit the state in less than a week.
The landfall process began at 1am, the department said, with winds of 110 to 120 kilometres an hour recorded at the landfall point. By 3am the storm’s inner rain band had reached land and its wall cloud, the ring of strongest winds around the centre, was moving ashore. Forecasters said the process could take about three hours and that the storm would keep moving north-northwest afterwards.
The department warned of a storm surge of about 1 to 1.5 metres above the tide, enough to flood low-lying parts of the south Andhra coast, with the highest surge expected over Bapatla, Krishna and Prakasam districts. It forecast heavy spells of rain over the next 12 hours. Kothapatnam in Prakasam had recorded 74.7 millimetres of rain by 1am, and Ongole 18 millimetres.
Residents told to stay indoors
B. Venkata Ramana, the District Revenue Officer of Prakasam, asked people to stay at home, saying very strong winds and rain would continue into the morning. Himanshu Shukla, the Nellore District Collector, gave residents the same instruction.
A falling tree stranded a vehicle at Chintala village, between Ongole and Kothapatnam, and the district sent a special team to clear it. Nearly 400 boats had been hauled ashore at Kothapatnam on Monday as fishermen secured their craft.
Andhra Pradesh placed five districts on alert: Bapatla, Palnadu, Markapuram, Nellore and Prakasam. Six National Disaster Response Force teams and seven state teams were deployed across the coast.
Odisha moves 160,000 people
Neighbouring Odisha, still recovering from flash floods after last week’s cyclone, evacuated 160,021 people from five districts on Monday, against a target of 333,752, according to a government preparedness report. Ganjam accounted for 151,434 of them, and 1,068 pregnant women were moved to safer places. Dilip Kumar Rout, the engineer-in-chief of the state’s water resources department, said Odisha was drawing down all ten of its medium reservoirs.
At least 19 domestic flights were cancelled on Monday at Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam airports, and 11 flights to and from Chennai were also called off.
A coast still recovering from Arnab
Murasu arrived before the region had recovered from Cyclone Arnab, which struck the Andhra coast last week. Arnab’s toll in Andhra Pradesh reached seven, and at least six more people died in floods and landslides in Odisha.
Arnab uprooted more than 15,000 electricity poles in Andhra Pradesh, and power restoration has been delayed. Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said his state was sending 500 skilled power workers and equipment to speed up the repairs.
