Andhra Pradesh and Odisha gear up for Cyclone Jawad

Cyclonic storm Jawad is likely to make landfall on the coast of Andhra Pradesh-Odisha on Saturday morning (November 4), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.

The IMD said on Thursday that a low-pressure area over the South Andaman Sea will build-up into a cyclonic storm in the next 36 hours.

The area over southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining Andaman Sea is likely to move west-northwestwards and concentrate into a depression during the next 12 hours. It would further intensify into a cyclonic storm over central Bay of Bengal during the subsequent 24 hours, the IMD said.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected over north coastal Andhra Pradesh between December 3-5. Isolated extremely heavy rains are also likely to occur over north coastal Andhra on December 4, the IMD said.

The state governments in Odisha and Andhra are gearing up to tackle the situation.

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Andhra Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting with collectors of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Vishakapatnam and discussed the precautionary measures to be taken.

The state appointed one officer each for the three districts: H Arun Kumar for Srikakulam, Kanthilal Dande for Vizianagaram and Syamala Rao for Vishakapatnam.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed teams in Andhra, Odisha and West Bengal. Army and navy teams are also ready along with their ships and aircraft.

In Odisha the BJD government on Wednesday asked collectors of 13 districts to prepare for evacuation of people. The government also chalked out a disaster management strategy by requisitioning NDRF, ODRAF and fire department personnel for rescue and relief.

Odisha Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra reviewed the preparedness and asked the collectors to be ready to evacuate the people living in low-lying areas and kuchha houses in the coastal region.

During the evacuation, priority will be given to pregnant women, children and elderly persons, he said.

The collectors were also asked to keep multi-purpose shelters ready for housing the evacuated people.

The IMD has issued a red warning (heavy to very heavy rainfall) in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts in Odisha.

Trains Cancelled

The East Coast Railway on Thursday said it had cancelled 95 trains for three days from Thursday.

As a precautionary measure for the safety of passengers, 95 mail and express trains originating from different places and passing through the region have been cancelled from December 2-4, an ECoR statement said.