Cyclone Warning for Odisha, West Bengal, North Andhra Pradesh Coasts, Rainfall Alert in Many States; Special Rescue Trains Announced

India Met Department (IMD) has notified a 'cyclone warning' for Odisha, West Bengal and North Andhra Pradesh coasts (Srikakulam, Vijayanagarm and Visakhapatnam) today i.e. on 2nd May 2019.  

IMD issued an ‘orange alert’ at 5.30 am this morning and said extremely severe cyclone 'Fani' lay about 400 km South-South-West of Puri; 215 km South-South-East of Visakhapatnam.  

It is to be noted that the 'cyclone alert' is usually referred to as 'yellow' message and the 'cyclone warning' is termed as an ‘orange message’. However, a 'red message' is issued with respect to the post-landfall outlook, a day away. 

'Fani' which is expected to turn North-North-East and cross Odisha between Gopalpur and Chandbali is set to hit areas around Puri on Friday with maximum sustained wind speed of up to ­180 km/h and gusting to 200 km/h. 

The IMD update also mentioned that the powerful cyclone is being tracked by Doppler weather radars at Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam.  

It has warned that gale winds with speeds up to 190 km/h gusting to 210 km/h will take place in the seas around the system until Friday morning and start scaling down thereafter. 

However, squally winds with speeds reaching 50 km/h gusting to 60 km/h would commence along and off North Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts from Thursday morning and become gale wind speeds of up to 70 km/h gusting to 85 km/h from the night. 

These could increase to clock 180 km/h gusting to 200 km/h along and off South Odisha and adjoining North Andhra Pradesh (Srikakulam district) coasts; and 90 km/h to 100 km/h gusting to 115 km/h along and off the remaining districts of Coastal Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam and Vijayanagaram districts) by Friday noon into the night and then decrease. 

Rainfall Alert:  

Adding to it, the Met has issued rainfall alerts for North Andhra Pradesh, South and Coastal Odisha, West Bengal. 

In North Andhra Pradesh, light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls over Visakhapatnam and Vijayanagaram is expected. Though, isolated heavy to extremely heavy falls (>20 cm) over Srikakulam on Thursday with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places would take place on Friday. 

In Odisha, light to moderate rainfall at most of the places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over South Coastal Odisha on Thursday is expected.  

This may led to moderate rainfall at most places and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy falls (>20 cm) at isolated places over Coastal Odisha and adjoining interior Odisha on Friday. 

In North Odisha on Saturday, light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places are expected.  

The good news is that the Indian Railways has declared three special trains to facilitate the rescue of stranded passengers in wake of the approaching monstrous Cyclone Fani, set to make landfall along the coast of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal on May 3. 

The special train will connect Puri in Odisha with Shalimar in West Bengal. The train with reserved and unreserved berths will begin from Puri at 12 pm today and proceed towards Shalimar. En route, it will stop at Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jajpur Keonjhar Road, Bhadrak, Balasore (all in Odisha) and Kharagpur in West Bengal. It will reach Bhubaneswar at about 1:30 pm. 

The second special train will start from Puri at 3 pm and go to Howrah in Kolkata, while the third train will start from Puri at 6 pm for Howrah. Though, the trains will take the same route as the earlier one, as per the railways.