Rain lashes 8 southern Odisha districts as 'Montha' intensifies into severe cyclonic storm

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 beaches, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) D K 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 Odisha.

Chief 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.