Cyclone relief: Andhra Pradesh appoints three officers for North Coastal districts

Vijayawada: The state government has appointed three special officers, including H. Arun Kumar for Srikakulam, Kantilal Dande for Vizianagaram and Syamala Rao for Visakhapatnam district to coordinate and monitor relief and rehabilitation operations following cyclone in north Andhra. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting with district collectors of the three districts here on Thursday and instructed them to set up relief camps. He urged them to focus on low-lying areas.

Soon after the review meeting, Reddy left on a two-day tour of flood-hit Kadapa, Chittoor and Nellore districts.

Meanwhile, Indian Meteorological department (IMD) has warned that the cyclonic storm is likely to form over central Bay of Bengal on Friday and  is likely to move northwest and intensify further before reaching north AP and Odisha coasts by Saturday morning. IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall at many places with heavy rainfall at isolated places over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and south coastal Odisha from Saturday evening. Light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places are likely over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and coastal Odisha.

IMD officials said that gale winds could reach a speed of 65-75 kmph gusting up to 85 kmph over central Bay of Bengal from early morning of Friday and increase to 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph over northwest and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal from Saturday morning for the subsequent 24 hours.