Heavy rain lashes Vijayawada; trees uprooted, roads inundated after Montha makes landfall

Heavy rain with gale is lashing Vijayawada city on Wednesday morning and a number of trees were uprooted and many roads inundated after severe cyclonic storm Montha crossed Andhra Pradesh coast near Narasapur in West Godavari district, south of Kakinada overnight, IMD said on Wednesday.

After crossing the coast, the weather system moved northwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph during the past six hours to weaken into a cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin issued at 5 am said.

"The latest observations indicate that the severe cyclonic storm Montha crossed Andhra Pradesh and Yanan coasts between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam, south of Kakinada and close to Narsapur during midnight (11.30 pm of October 28 and 12.30 am of October 29)," IMD said in a release.

The landfall process lasted about five hours, starting around 7.30 pm on Tuesday and completing around 12.30 am on Wednesday, they added.

By 2.30 am on Wednesday, Montha, which means a fragrant flower in Thai, lay centred about 20 km west to northwest of Narasapur, 50 km northeast of Machilipatnam, 90 km west to southwest of Kakinada, 230 km southwest of Visakhapatnam and 470 km southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha).

"It is likely to move northwestwards across coastal Andhra Pradesh and maintain its intensity of a cyclonic storm during the next six hours, and weaken further into a deep depression during subsequent six hours," said the Met Department.

The Met Department forecast light to moderate rain likely at most places in Andhra Pradesh and Yanam and heavy to very heavy rain at a few places till October 29.

Similarly, it predicted extremely heavy rainfall of more than 20 cm at isolated places during the same period.

For October 30, it predicted light to moderate rain at many places with heavy rain at isolated places over north coastal Andhra Pradesh.