Cyclone Asani likely to weaken into depression, trigger heavy rain in several Odisha districts around May 12

As it is summer time, we don’t expect flooding, but wherever there is water logging, local administration has been advised and they are well prepared to tackle the situation, said Special Relief Commissioner.

The cyclonic storm will weaken into a depression as it will move around 100 kms parallel to the Odisha Coast, triggering heavy rainfall in several Odisha districts, said Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena on Monday.

Cyclonic Storm Asani, over the west-central and adjoining south Bay of Bengal, moved nearly northwestwards with a speed of 16 kmph in the morning and lay centered over the west-central Bay of Bengal around noon on Monday. The system will weaken into a deep depression when it comes closer to Chilika on May 12, said Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena.

SRC Pradeep Kumar Jena said the Cyclonic storm Asani is currently located in the West Central and adjoining South Bay of Bengal, almost 550 km southwest of Puri. It is moving in a northwest direction as predicted earlier by IMD. It is expected by the evening of 10th around 150 kms from north of Andhra-Pradesh and South Odisha Coast. Around 150 kms from the coastline, it will make a recurve towards the right and move in a north-easterly direction towards the North Bay of Bengal, almost parallel to the Odisha coast, around 100 kms from the coastline.

After it re-curves and reaches the Odisha coast, it will be a cyclonic storm and as it reaches south-south of Puri it will be converted into a deep depression. “By 12th evening onwards it will be weakening to a depression. As a result, we can expect winds at the speed of 40-50 kms per hour in coastal belts,” Jena said.

He added, “We expect rain in Ganjam, Gajapati and Puri districts from 10th evening to 11th morning and 11th to 12th morning. We expect 7-10m rain at Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack. As it is summer time, we don’t expect flooding, but wherever there is water logging, local administration has been advised and they are well prepared to tackle the situation.”

The IMD has also predicted gale winds on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while for Tuesday onwards, it has also warned of squally wind speeds reaching 40-50 kmph, gusting to 60 kmph likely along and off north Andhra Pradesh coast on May 10; along Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast on May 11 and along Odisha and West Bengal coast on May 12.

Meanwhile, some fishermen of the Chikiti area of Ganjam district were returning from Vishakhapatnam to Ganjam on a boat. Due to some malfunction in the boat, they were left stuck in the sea around 1 km from the coast near Sunapur in Ganjam, Jena told reporters.