Lagatar24 Desk
Bhubaneshwar, Dec.4: Heavy rains and powerful gusts pounded broad swaths of coastal Odisha as Cyclone Jawad advanced down the coast on Saturday morning . Heavy rain is also expected in sections of coastal Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal today, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The cyclone, which is scheduled to make landfall near Puri on Sunday afternoon, is expected to weaken gradually over the next 12 hours and then move north-northeastwards along the Odisha coast, arriving near Puri on December 5th at noon as a Deep Depression.
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba inspected the preparations for the impending cyclone Jawad in the Bay of Bengal region on Friday and urged all agencies involved to ensure no lives are lost and property damage is kept to a minimum. A total of 64 teams have been designated for deployment in the impacted states by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Schools across 19 districts in Odisha will remain closed due to heavy rainfall, ANI reported. Meanwhile in Andhra Pradesh, over 54,008 people from the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam have been evacuated.
