Cyclonic storm ‘Gulab’ to cross North AP-South Odisha Coasts around midnight today
Hyderabad : The Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’ (pronounced as Gul-Aab) over Northwest and adjoining Westcentral Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards with a speed of 10 kmph during the last six hours and lay centered at 0530 hrs Sunday, over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal near Latitude. 18.3°North and Longitude. 87.3°East, about 270 km east-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha) & 330 km east of Kalingapatnam in (Andhra Pradesh).
India Meteorological Department (IMD) in a bulletin a short while ago said, It is likely to move nearly westwards and cross North Andhra Pradesh – South Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam & Gopalpur, as a Cyclonic Storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 75-85 kmph gusting to 95 kmph, around midnight of today.
Tidal wave of about 0.5 m height above the astronomical tide likely to inundate low lying areas of Srikakulam, Sompeta, Vizianagaram districts in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Ganjam district in Odisha during the time of landfall.
The bulletin said after the landfall, the system is likely to maintain the cyclonic storm intensity with slight weakening of wind speed during the subsequent six hours over south Odisha & adjoining North coastal Andhra Pradesh.
It is likely to move west-northwestwards across south Odisha & South Chhattisgarh and weaken gradually into a Depression during the subsequent 12 hours.
Gale wind speed reaching 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph is likely to prevail over North Andhra Pradesh (Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam Districts) and south Odisha coasts (Ganjam, Gajapati Districts) from the midnight of today to early morning of September 27. Squally wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph likely to prevail over North Telangana on Monday.
Under the influence of the cyclone, Extremely heavy falls have been predicted at isolated places in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will witness heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places, the bulletin said.
Due to cyclone ‘Gulab’ South Central Railway (SCR) has cancelled 12 trains and short-terminated, diverted and regulated trains.
It said due to Strong winds & very Heavy/Extremely heavy Rainfall, there will be damage to thatched huts, minor damage to power and communication lines due to breaking of branches and uprooting of trees.
