Cyclonic storm ‘Vardah’ moves towards Andhra Pradesh, further intensifies

The Skymet Weather, India's weather analyses department said that the Cyclone Vardah has further intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and will start moving towards the Andhra Pradesh coast on Saturday.

Port Blair, December 10: Cyclonic storm Vardah which was in south-east Bay of Bengal on Friday has further intensified and moving fast towards Andhra Pradesh. Due to this heavy rains are expected to commence along the Andhra coast from Saturday, as Cyclone Vardah continued to move north-west. According to news agency ANI, “Cyclonic storm, Vardah which was in the south-east Bay of Bengal has further intensified and is 880 km’s south-east of Nellore”. The Skymet Weather, India’s weather analyses department said that the Cyclone Vardah has further intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and will start moving towards the Andhra Pradesh coast on Saturday, that may result in heavy rains reducing over Andaman and Nicobar Islands and rains commencing over Andhra Pradesh.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu were also predicted to witness isolated showers along the coast. Earlier on Friday, reports suggested that Vardah was about 990 km south-east of Vizag, 1,090 km east-southeast of Machilipatnam and 250 km west-northwest of Port Blair.

The Andhra Pradesh government is in a standby mode and in gearing up to tackle the situation, as the cyclone Vardah is expected to make a landfall between Kakinda and Nellore on December 12. Also, fishermen have been advised not to go to sea.

According to reports, the National Disaster Management Authority has issued an L1 level alert, and the state and centre will remain in readiness to provide assistance if needed.

An emergency helpline service has been set up at the Command and Communications Centre in Vijayawada – 08662488000.

Krishna district officials helpline number is – 08672252572 and 1077. The Visakhapatnam emergency toll-free number is 1800-425-0001.