Titli on Wednesday intensified into a “very severe cyclonic storm”, prompting the state government to gear up its machinery to ensure “zero casualty” in the eight coastal districts — Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Balasore and Bhadrak — that are expected to bear the brunt in the event of the cyclone’s landfall.
The eight districts would face “extremely heavy rain and high velocity wind reaching up to 165kmph,” Bhubaneswar Regional Meteorological Centre director H.R. Biswas said and added that the remaining 22 districts would receive heavy rain from Wednesday night.
The movement of the cyclonic storm is being monitored by the coastal doppler weather radars at Visakhapatnam, Gopalpur and Paradip.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (Odraf) have been stationed in vulnerable areas and people living in the coastal district’s low-lying areas
are being shifted to cyclone shelters.
“We are in touch with the army, air force, navy and coast guard and if necessary will seek their help to tackle the situation,” said special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi.
Three lakh people have been evacuated from the low-lying district, an official said.
The Telegraph
The government has also made arrangements to tackle “flood-like situation” in south Odisha as water levels in the Rushikulya and Vamsadhara rivers are expected to rise over the next two days.
While the East Coast Railways have cancelled and restricted movement of several trains plying in the coastal and southern belts, all flights taking off from Bhubaneswar have been cancelled from Tuesday night. “There will be no parking of aircraft at the Bhubaneswar airport,” said an airport official.
State’s Food supplies Surjya Narayan Patro urged people not to indulge in panic buying and warned strong action against traders if they were found hoarding essential items. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik visited the office of the special relief commissioner (SRC) here to monitor the preparations.
Puri collector Jyoti Prakash Das said: “We have deputed special teams to the cut-off areas in the Chilika lagoon so that they can help people in distress.”
