Photo: VIIRS imagery from NOAA's NOAA20 satellite / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Cyclone Murasu strengthened into a severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal in the early hours of Monday, November 2, and is on course to cross the south Andhra Pradesh coast near Ongole between Monday midnight and the early hours of Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Winds of 100 to 110 kmph, gusting to 120 kmph, are expected at landfall.
Where the storm is now
At 2.30 am on Monday, the IMD placed the system over the west-central and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal, roughly 260 km east-northeast of Chennai, 290 km east-southeast of Nellore and 330 km southeast of Ongole. It had moved northwest at about 20 kmph over the previous six hours. The weather office expects it to keep heading northwest and come ashore on the stretch between Nellore and Narsapur.
Rain had already begun in parts of Andhra Pradesh by Monday morning. Extremely heavy rainfall alerts are in place for Eluru, Krishna, Guntur, Bapatla and Nellore districts, and very heavy rain is likely in NTR, East and West Godavari, Palnadu, Chittoor and Tirupati.
Andhra Pradesh braces for a second hit
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu told officials on Sunday to be fully prepared for relief and rescue work, and to move staff and equipment to vulnerable areas in advance. State estimates show 20 mandals could get extremely heavy rain, nine of them in Eluru district, five each in Krishna and NTR, and one in Bapatla. Strong winds could damage around 15,128 electricity poles across 12 districts, according to preliminary assessments.
Officials must remain fully prepared to undertake relief and rescue operations.
N. Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
Rain and school closures in Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu, schools and colleges in several districts, including Chennai and Tiruvallur, were closed on Monday after rain fell steadily from Sunday night. The regional weather centre has forecast heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in Chennai and Tiruvallur over the next 24 hours, with gusty winds of 40 to 50 kmph. Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G.S. Sameeran reviewed the situation from the city’s command and control centre, and district collectors have been told to stay on high alert and report incidents to the State Emergency Operations Centre.
Why it matters
Murasu, a name proposed by India that means war drum, is the second cyclone to threaten the east coast in a week. Cyclone Arnab struck the Andhra coast on October 28 with winds of up to 150 kmph. In Odisha, the death toll linked to Arnab rose to six on Sunday after two more bodies were recovered from the landslide-hit village of Gidipabali on the Ganjam-Kandhamal border, and ten people are still missing, officials said.
Odisha Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said the southern districts, including Ganjam, are on high alert and that people in low-lying and hilly areas will be evacuated before the new storm arrives. Several areas of Andhra Pradesh are forecast to get heavy to very heavy rain on November 3 and 4 as well, so the threat will not end with landfall.
