Prime Minister Narendra Modi is chairing a high level meeting at his residence in New Delhi to review the preparedness for the fast approaching cyclone Hudhud which is likely to hit Odisha and Andhra Pradesh tomorrow.
The meeting is being attended by Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami, MeT department DG L S Rathore, senior officials of Army, Navy, Air Force and National Disaster Response Force.
The very severe cyclonic storm HUDHUD over west central Bay of Bengal is fast approaching towards the eastern coast and now lay centered about 350 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha.
The Indian Meteorological Department office at Bhubaneswar has said HUDHUD would cross north Andhra Pradesh coast around Visakhapatnam by tomorrow forenoon. Meanwhile, the Odisha government has started evacuating people from vulnerable areas in southern parts of the state to safer places and multi-purpose cyclone centres as part of its efforts to ensure ‘zero casualty’ in the very severe cyclone HUDHUD heading towards the eastern coast.
The local administration, National Disaster Response Force and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force. fire brigade personnel have been pressed into service to evacuate people in eight southern districts of Odisha.
Special Relief Commissioner of Odisha, PK Mohapatra, has said about 3.5 lakh people including tribal people from the inaccessible Bonda hills in Malkangiri would be evacuated. Many parts of Odisha have already started receiving rainfall.
The state expects heavy to very heavy rainfall with wind speeed of about 100 km per hour along and off Odisha coast from today night under the impact of cyclonic storm HUDHUD.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today said, the state adminstartion has geared up to face any eventuality due to Severe Cyclonic Storm, Hud Hud.
He was reviewing the situation with senior officials and district administration. He said, with the Centre's cooperation, all arrangements have been kept in place to face the situation.
Speaking to All India Radio, Mr. Naidu said, the state will take help of technology to bring back normalcy soon.
Meanwhile, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, INCOIS has issued warning over storm surge, stating that maximum height of storm surge will be 1.5 meters at Pedanayakapalem in Visakhapatnam district.
Mr. Chenoy also informed that waves may go up to a maximum height of six meters at some places during the landfall of the cyclonic storm.
The State Government has put five districts of Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and East and West Godavari on high alert as the very severe Cyclonic Storm Hud Hud is likely to landfall in Visakhapatnam District.
The state government has set up 370 relief camps and evacuating people from 396 villages from theses districts.
Thirty teams from Eastern Naval Command and one column of Army have been kept on standby at Visakhapatnam while 13 NDRF teams are in place to undertake relief and rescue operations.
