Cyclone Gulab makes landfall in Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam: The cyclonic storm Gulab made its landfall in north coastal Andhra Pradesh near Kalingapatnam coast in Srikakulam district on Sunday night with a maximum wind speed of 95 kmph but caused heavy to extremely heavy downpour in the coastal districts.

A rainfall of 148.5 mm was reported from Sunday evening in the areas close to the landfall. The outer cloud bands of the storm had started touching the coast from 6 pm, followed by the storm's eye hitting the Kottapeta coastal hamlet. The radius of the storm's eye was around 20 km.

No causalty was reported, but six fishermen from Vajrapu Kottur mandal went missing in the sea for some time, after which five of them reached the shore safely. Timely help went to them from the Indian Coast Guard and the AP State Disaster Response team. The missing person was Mohana Rao.

Their boat capsized in the sea while on their way to the AP coast from Odisha as the cyclone's winds touched nearly 80-85 kmph.

The state government evicted 1,358 people from the 13 vulnerable mandals in Srikakulam and put them up at 61 rehabilitation centers.

Tidal waves of about 0.5 metres high above the astronomical tide were observed in the course of the landfall. According to first reports, some 100 trees and 50 electrical poles were partially or fully uprooted in these mandals during landfall time.

This, notably, would be the last cyclone in the 2021 southwest monsoon season ending on September 30.

Two teams of the NDRF and four teams of the SDRF were pressed into service for the 13 affected mandals in Srikakulam, joint collector Sumit Kumar said.

India Meteorological Department official S. Stella, said, "The landfall took place nearly 20 km north of Kalingapatnam. The storm weakened into a deep depression while moving towards the west-northwest direction. Since this was the weakest cyclone, its intensity on the land would be minimal in comparison with the very severe cyclonic storms like Hudhud that played havoc in Vizag in 2014."  

The AP irrigation department lifted the floodgates at Thotapalli barrage over Nagavali river in Vizianagaram district and Gotta barrage over river Vamsadhara in Srikakulam district as the water levels started rising under the influence of the heavy downpour in Odisha, where existed the catchment areas for AP rivers.

Chief Secretary Adityanath Das, who arrived at Vizag on Sunday evening, was heading for Srikakulam on Monday to take stock of the situation. He discussed the impact of the cyclone in the three districts with the officials.