Insight Bureau: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who is in New Delhi to attend a meeting on Left-Wing Extremism convened by Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the State’s preparedness for cyclonic storm ‘Gulab’, which is likely to make landfall by midnight.
The Deep Depression over Bay of Bengal moved westward in the last 6 hours and intensified into the Cyclonic Storm “Gulab.”
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the cyclone will move further westward and cross north Andhra Pradesh, south Odisha around Sunday evening. A red alert has been sounded in both the states for a cyclonic warning and post landfall lookout.
The weather department said Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’ is moving with a speed of 7 kmph in last 6 hrs. Gulab is about 180 km East-Southeast of Gopalpur and 240 km East-northeast of Kalingapatnam.
It is likely to cross between Kalingapatnam & Gopalpur around Sep 26 evening.
Due to the prevailing weather conditions, 24 trains have been cancelled and few others have been diverted, rescheduled
The ‘Red Warning’ has been issued for seven districts of Odisha- Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri.
The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena said as per the IMD forecast, 42 ODRAF teams, 24 NDRF teams and 102 Fire Service teams will be deployed to seven districts.
IMD also issued yellow warning for the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Cuttack, Boudh, Sonepur, Bolangir, and Nuapada.