Cyclone Montha Makes Landfall In Andhra Triggering Very Heavy Rain, Landslides In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Severe cyclonic storm Montha on Tuesday made a landfall in Andhra Pradesh, triggering heavy to very heavy rain and disrupting normal life in several parts of Odisha.

As the landfall process was nearing completion, several districts in southern and coastal Odisha were pounded by rainfall of varied intensity under the influence of the severe cyclonic storm.

Normal life was severely affected in Odisha as the system dumped heavy rain in coastal and southern Odisha districts, causing landslides and damaging houses besides uprooting trees, officials said.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), severe cyclone Montha will cross the Andhra coast with a maximum sustained wind speed of 90 to 100 kmph and gusting up to 110 kmph.

Moving with a speed of 15 kmph during past six hours, the system centred at 9.30 pm about 60 km east of Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 100 km south-southwest of Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), 230 km southwest of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and 480 km southwest of Gopalpur in Odisha.

It is likely to move north-westwards and cross Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam, to the south of Kakinada during next 2 hours as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph. The landfall process, which commenced in the evening, will continue for next nearly two hours.

Preliminary reports of damages were received from at least eight southern Odisha districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Nabarangpur.

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 cyclone’s movement is being closely tracked by Doppler Weather Radars (DWR) at Machilipatnam and Visakhapatnam, along with coastal observatories, automatic weather stations (AWS), ships, buoys, and satellites.

Although Montha was in the process of crossing Andhra Pradesh coast, its impact is being felt across southern and coastal districts of Odisha.

Red and orange warning has been issued for the districts of Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Khurda, Puri, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Balangir and Sonepur on October 28-29. Scattered heavy to very heavy falls (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (>20cm) may occur at isolated places in the districts of Malakangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajpati and Ganjam on October 28, and Malakangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Rayagada on October 29 with wind speed of 60 to 70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph.