Cyclone Gulab: Andhra Pradesh's north coastal districts brace for impact 

District administrations of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam are monitoring the situation and the State Disaster Management personnel are kept on standby.
Image used for representation (Photo | PTI)
Image used for representation (Photo | PTI)

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh scrambled its resources on Saturday to face the impact of Cyclone Gulab, expected to cross North Coastal Andhra - South Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur around Sunday evening. Orange alert has been sounded in north coastal districts, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, and Visakhapatnam, and adjoining South Odisha after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal has intensified into Cyclone ‘Gulab.’

Under the impact of the cyclonic storm, heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in north coastal districts with light to moderate rainfall in the rest of the State has been predicted for Sunday. Met department officials warned of rough to very rough sea conditions off AP and advised fishermen against venturing into sea. They warned of tidal waves of about 0.5 metres height above the astronomical tide likely to inundate low-lying areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts in AP and Ganjam in Odisha. 

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy reviewed the cyclone preparedness and directed officials to take all necessary steps to ensure no loss of life and minimal damage to property. The collectors of three north coastal Andhra districts have been directed to evolve Covid-appropriate mass evacuation plan if necessary. 
Control rooms have been set up at village secretariats, besides deploying disaster management personnel in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam. The collectors are taking steps to set up relief camps for cyclone victims. Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts together have a coastline of 378 km and they house 59,496 fishermen families in 68 coastal mandals. 

Dist collectors told to prepare evacuation plan

Officials have identified 86,000 families living in low-lying areas and mapped them with specific high ground cyclone shelters. All RDOs, MROs and line departments have been directed to take immediate precautionary measures, including activation of emergency operation centres (EOCs). At the State-level, emergency operations centre is monitoring the situation in coordination with district centres. 

All 76 Mandal Emergency Operation Centres (MEOCs), 145 Multipurpose Cyclone Centres, 16 Fish Landing Centres, eight tourist locations, which are connected to DEOCs and SEOC with  emergency warning communication systems, have been activated. Early warning communication systems such as ISAT phones (16), VAST (4 ), DMR (40), SBMDVT (20) etc. have been provided to EOCs.
Besides village/ward secretariat staff, the State government has activated village and ward volunteers in the districts under impact of cyclone to render their services. One SDRF team is positioned at Visakhapatnam, two NDRF teams at Srikakulam and another NDRF team at Visakhapatnam.   

They have been  asked to identify vulnerable locations for pre-positioning of necessary stocks of essential commodities. Twelve trains, including some plying in both directions, have been cancelled for Sunday. Similarly, six trains have been cancelled for Monday.  Among those trains cancelled on Sunday are Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam-Bhubaneswar special (both directions), Bhubaneswar-Secunderabad special, Puri-Chennai Central special, Gunupur-Visakhapatnam-Gunupur special (both directions), Vizag-Tata special, Vizag - Korba- Vizag special, Visakhapatnam-Rayagada special and Rayagada-Guntur special.

Helplines

Visakhapatnam Collectorate control room phone numbers - 0891-2590102, 0891-2750089, 0891-2750090, 0891-2560820
GVMC office - 7093092449
Vizianagaram Collectorate - 08922-236947
Srikakulam district 
control room - 6309990933

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