Hyderabad /Bhubaneshwar : Cyclone Hudhud, termed as a ‘very severe’ storm by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), continued to gather force and is expected to hit Visakhapatnam coast in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday noon.
After landfall, the cyclone will persist for almost six hours and will be at its severity during noon. Though, it is expected to later weaken over the next six hours as it will move towards Odisha and Chhattisgarh.Over five lakh people living in and around the vulnerable coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have been evacuated with Cyclone ‘Hudhud’ with winds gusting up to 195 kmph.
The Army and the Navy have kept their personnel on stand-by for rescue and relief operations.
In Odisha, the state government evacuated people from vulnerable areas to minimise casualties even as two flights and 39 trains on the route were cancelled.
“The collectors of eight districts – Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kalahandi and Kandhamal have been on the job to shift people from vulnerable areas to safe places,” Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Mohapatra said.
The National Crisis Management Committee took stock of the preparedness of various state and central government agencies to deal with the cyclone.
