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StatesAndhra Pradesh

Cyclone Murasu speeds up, now 200 km off Chennai as schools shut in three states

The IMD's morning bulletin puts the severe cyclonic storm 260 km from Ongole and moving faster, with landfall still due around midnight between Nellore and Narsapur.

From the editorial desk · AmaravatiPublished
Kalugolamma temple in Kavali, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh (file photo)
Kalugolamma temple in Kavali, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh (file photo)Photo: Malyadri / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Key points

  1. Murasu was about 200 km east-northeast of Chennai at 5:30 am on Monday.
  2. It is expected to cross the coast close to Ongole around midnight, with winds gusting to 120 km/h.
  3. Schools are shut in Chennai, parts of Andhra Pradesh and Malkangiri.

Severe cyclonic storm Murasu picked up speed overnight and was about 200 km east-northeast of Chennai early on Monday, as it headed for the south Andhra Pradesh coast, where it is due to cross around midnight.

At 5:30 am the storm was centred near 13.9°N, 81.8°E, about 210 km east-southeast of Nellore, 220 km east-southeast of Kavali and 260 km south-east of Ongole, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. It had moved west-northwest at about 25 km/h over the previous six hours. Three hours earlier it was 260 km from Chennai and 330 km from Ongole, moving at about 20 km/h.

The IMD expects Murasu to cross between Nellore and Narsapur, close to Ongole, with sustained winds of 100 to 110 km/h gusting to 120 km/h. Its earlier bulletin put the crossing between 11:30 pm on Monday and 4 am on Tuesday. A red cyclone warning is in force for the Andhra coast and the adjoining north Tamil Nadu coast, and a storm surge of 1 to 1.5 metres could flood low-lying parts of Bapatla, Guntur, Krishna and Prakasam districts.

Schools closed

Chennai Collector S Malathi Helan declared Monday a holiday for schools and colleges, and Tiruvallur district did the same under an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rain. In Andhra Pradesh, schools and colleges are shut in NTR district, which includes Vijayawada, and in Palnadu, Nellore and Gudur.

A Bonda woman at a market in Malkangiri district, Odisha (file photo)
A Bonda woman at a market in Malkangiri district, southern Odisha, where schools, colleges and anganwadi centres are shut from 2 to 4 November and may serve as cyclone shelters.Drashokk / Wikimedia

In Odisha, the Malkangiri administration has closed all schools, colleges and anganwadi centres from 2 to 4 November, saying the buildings may be used as temporary cyclone shelters.

Odisha’s south gets ready

Manorama Mohanty, director of the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, said rain in Odisha would begin on Monday, grow heavier on Tuesday and continue into Wednesday. In Rayagada, all 11 fire station teams have been mobilised and JCBs, excavators and cranes placed at Gumma Ghati and Mukundpur Ghati to keep National Highway 326 open.

Rayagada town, Odisha (file photo)
Rayagada in southern Odisha, where fire teams and road-clearing machinery have been posted ahead of the storm.Hpsatapathy / Wikimedia

“The administration has deployed fire station teams and machinery for road clearance,” said Ravindranath Kahanra, Additional District Magistrate of Rayagada.

Fishing is suspended, and the IMD has told fishermen to stay out of the Bay of Bengal, where seas will stay rough to very rough until 4 November.