Odisha begins evacuation ahead of Hudhud's landfall tomorrow

Ahead of very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud's landfall near Visakhapatanam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh tomorrow, Odisha government today began evacuation of people from vulnerable places and kept army teams and choppers standby for rescue and relief operations besides deploying NDRF and ODRF personnel.
"We have evacuated 7,360 people including 357 members of Bonda tribe in Malkangiri by afternoon and the process is continuing. Evacuation will be complete by tomorrow noon," Chief Secretary G C Pati told reporters after discussing the matter with the Cabinet Secretary through video conferencing.
He said Collectors of eight identified districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Kalahandi are undertaking evacuation to ensure "zero casualty" goal. Highest number of 5,000 people have been evacuated in Ganjam district, Pati said.

Meanwhile, a nine-year-old girl drowned and a boy was reported missing as a mechanised boat engaged in evacuating people from seaside Satabhaya area in Kendrapara district in view of cyclone 'Hudhud' hitting vulnerable seaside village capsized in Baunsagadi rivulet today, he said.
The residents of Magarakanda village were being evacuated when the mishap occurred at around 11 am today, Kendrapara Collector Pramod Kumar Das said.
The East Coast Railways cancelled train services on Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatanam route tomorrow, the state government stopped bus service in five districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and parts of Kalahandi on Sunday in view of the cyclone. The private bus operators have also beem asked not to operate service tomorrow.

"We have appealed the public in the eight identified districts not to venture out of their houses during the landfall of the cyclone and six hours after that tomorrow," Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Mohapatra told reporters adding BSNL had been requested to send SMS to its users urging them not to venture out.
"We are keeping watch on the situation. If required flight operation may be suspended tomorrow," director of Biju Patnaik airport Sharad Kumar said.
Stating that 26 teams (each comprising 40 personnel) 16 of NDRF and 10 teams of ODRF have already been deployed in vulnerable places for rescue work, the Chief Secretary said "We have been assured by the Centre that army teams will be ready at Raipur in Chhattisgarh and 5 choppers at Kalaikunda in West Bengal for our call.