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Srikakulam desperate for rain, but prays raging cyclone spares their lives, property

VISAKHAPATNAM: As the district of Srikakulam - the scene of a devastating cyclone in October last year - prepares itself for Cyclone Fani , which is expected to make landfall in neighbouring Odisha, people in the district are hoping the region will receive copious amounts of rain, but suffer no loss of life or property.




Even as Real Time Governance Society sounded a 'Red Alert' on Cyclone Fani (pronounced 'Foni'), the district administration has made all arrangements to handle the situation in the event of the cyclone lashing the region. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has written to the Election Commission to lift the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) so that the political leadership can take charge of relief and rescue efforts. The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard too are on stand-by to provide succour to the cyclone-affected.

"Srikakulam town has been having a dry spell for the past four months, since Cyclone Phethai passed us in December. We are now praying for rain and large amounts of it," says Sujatha Dumpala, 54, the owner of a secondary school in Srikakulam. "The rains will give us respite from the scorching heat wave of the past few weeks," Dumpala said by phone from Srikakulam, which is 100 km from here.

"The town has been cloudy since Wednesday morning, with the met department predicting that the villages of Gara and Kalingapatnam on the coast will get heavy rain. Residents of the town are hoping to get a decent volume of rain because of the cyclone," says Hasan uz Zaman, 76, a resident of Srikakulam. "It has been a very hot summer, so far," he added.

Meanwhile, the slowed or stalled movement of Cyclone Fani in the Bay of Bengal and conducive weather conditions turned it into an extremely severe cyclone on Wednesday.

After the otherwise non-significant weather system brewed into a low pressure zone around April 25, it took almost a week for it to reach its peak strength on Wednesday.

While it moved at a relatively low speed of 10 kmph on Tuesday, it further decreased to 6 kmph on Wednesday. In fact, the system remained dormant for many days in its trajectory.

According to the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre-Tropical Cyclones (RSMC), New Delhi, the estimated maximum sustained wind speed will be 170-180 kmph, gusting to 200 km, during the landfall of the cyclone on May 3 between Gopalpur and Chandbali, around Puri. Its report also mentioned that the sea condition is phenomenal around the system centre.

OSRU Bhanu Kumar, a former head of the department of meteorology and oceanography, Andhra University, said that a general cyclone takes about four to five days to reach its maximum strength before landfall.

"But in the case of Cyclone Fani, it is almost 11 days since the system first started its journey. The number of cyclones has decreased but the intensity has increased over the years. A warmer ocean means it pumps more moisture into the storm. All these factors have made Cyclone Fani the strongest cyclone in decades," said Bhanu Kumar.

Speaking to ToI, Cyclone Warning Centre-Visakhapatnam director K Ramachandra Rao said Cyclone Fani lay over the west-central Bay of Bengal and would move northwards during the next six hours and north-northeastwards thereafter and cross Odisha coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali on May 3. "Squally wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph, gusting to 60 kmph, is very likely to commence along and off north coastal Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. It would become gale-force winds with speed reaching 100 kmph and above from Friday night in Srikakulam and may further intensify till the afternoon of May 3. Heavy rains may lash Srikakulam from Thursday," said Ramachandra Rao.

In the letter to the CEC, Naidu said, "To facilitate free flow of information, mobilization of human and material resources and taking other preventive steps, there is a need to relax the model code of conduct that is in force in the state. Since the Assembly elections have been completed in the state, it is requested that the model code of conduct may be relaxed, so that official machinery and ministers concerned can work effectively to mitigate the effects of the cyclone," Naidu said.

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