New Delhi: Cyclone Hudhud, which is fast approaching the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coastline, has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on Friday evening and is expected to make a land fall on Sunday.
Talking to IBNLive.com about the preparations done by the authorities, Indian Coast Guard PRO Comdt Ajay Kumar Pandey said, "The sea guards have taken in account the lessons learnt from the tropical cyclone Phailin, that hit eastern coast in October 2013, and the preparations are more prudent to counter the consequences of cyclone Hudhud."
The officer informed that the Coast Guard ships have been deployed in the Bay of Bengal and are being operated from the Chennai, Paradip, Visakhapatnam and Haldia ports. The Fisheries Department has been taken into the loop to notify the missing boats and are being brought back by the coast guard ships, he said. The coast guard expects to accomplish this work by Saturday morning, he added.
The coast guard aircrafts and helicopters are in place at Chennai and Kolkata to conduct the rescue operations as the storm makes landfall on Sunday.
Earlier on Friday, the Indian Meteorology Department director LS Rathore said that the cyclone will further strengthen in the next few hours, bringing heavy to very heavy rainfall in the northern districts of Andhra Pradesh.
The District Collector of Visakhapatnam, where Hudhud is expected to make landfall on Sunday, said that the windspeed of the cyclone could go up to 180kmph by the time it hits.
"Thirty five thousand people will be evacuated tomorrow. Forty relief centres have been set up," he told CNN-IBN.
Andhra Pradesh and Odisha were hit by Cyclone Phailin in October last year. The windspeed of Phailin was over 200kmph and it brought widespread destruction in the two states.
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