Massive evacuation operations are underway in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to shift people from low lying areas to safer places as a severe tropical storm nick named Phailin advanced menacingly towards the eastern coast.
The cyclone, which lay centred at 500 kms south-southeast of Paradip in Bay of Bengal at 1130 hrs, will cross north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast between Kalingapatnam and Paradip close to Gopalpur tomorrow evening.
The met department predicted heavy to very heavy rain fall, measuring upto 25 cm and squally winds with maximum sustained wind speed of 210-220 kms per hour at many coastal districts of the two states after the storm makes a landfall.
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While the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) authorities, as a pre-cautionary measure, has stopped cargo handling operation and removed the vessels from the port area to safe areas, Visakhapatnam port is working normally.
"If any message come from meteorological department then we will take steps to move the vessels from berths to roads", port officials told.
In Odisha, steps are being taken to evacuate five lakh people from vulnerable areas. The collectors of the coastal districts have been directed to ensure zero casualty and evacuate people from low lying areas to cyclone shelters by today evening, said PK Mohapatra, state special relief commissioner.
The Andhra Pradesh government has put collectors of all the nine coastal districts in the state on high alert and ordered evacuation of 64,000 people from low-lying areas.
State revenue minister, N Raghuveera Reddy, who reviewed the situation, said that about 40,000 people in Visakhapatnam, 2,000 in Srikakulam and 4,000 in Vizianagaram districts were being evacuated on Friday. About 850 cyclone shelters were identified to accommodate the distressed people.
While the Odisha government has cancelled the Puja holidays of all government employees, the government employees and the staff of power utilities in Andhra Pradesh, who were on a strike in protest against the proposed bifurcation of the state, have withdrawn their in view of the impending cyclone.
Round-the-clock control rooms have been opened at state, district and mandal levels in the two states to monitor the situation. Fishermen, who had ventured into the sea, have been asked to return to the coast.
The cyclone is expected to wreak extensive damage to kutcha houses, standing crops and power and communication lines and cause disruption of rail and road traffic.
The vulnerable seven districts in Odisha are Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsingpur, Kendrapara, Nayagarh and Khurda. Besides, evacuation orders have also been given for Bhadrak and Balasore districts. Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik appealed to the people not to panic and called for united efforts to fight the impending calamity.
Navy, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) are ready for relief and rescue operations, Patnaik said.
The Bhubaneswar met office has asked to hoist Local Cautionary Signal Number Three (LC-III) at all ports in Odisha and signalled Cyclone Warning-10 for the state coast.
The storm surge with height of around three meter above astronomical tide would inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha during landfall, it predicted.
About 28 NDRF teams are put to operation in the state to carry out the rescue and relief operations.
Odisha is already a victim of Super Cyclone that hit the state in October 1999 and claimed more than 10,000 lives.
