Giving an overview of Cyclone Hud Hud, Director General of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) LS Rathor on Saturday stated that the four districts of Andhra Pradesh will face the brunt of the cyclone while southern Odisha will see fairly widespread heavy to very heavy rainfall before the cyclone starts weakening in the next two-three days.
"Under the influence of severe cyclone Hud Hud, the coastal districts of both states Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have started reporting light to moderate rainfall. And with a wind speed of 40 to 50 kmph. When the system is likely to cross the coast of Andhra Pradesh, the four districts namely Srikakulam, Vijaynagaram, Vishakhapatnam and East Godavari , (are likely to get the maximum brunt), both in terms of precipitation and strong winds. At the time of crossing the coast the wind speed is likely to be 160 to 170 kmph gusting upto 185 kmph. After crossing the coast system is likely to weaken as cyclonic storm within next 12 hours and further weaken as depression thereafter in another 12 hours," IMD Director General said at a press conference .
" Southern Odisha will also get fairly widespread heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy rainfall and the districts which are likely to impacted are Ganjam, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Phulbani," he added.
"Very severe cyclonic storm Hud Hud presently lay centered around 16 degree North and 85 degree East longitude, about 240 km South-East of Vishakhapatnam and about 330 km South South-East of Gopalpur," Rathor said.
"It has been moving in north- westward direction with a speed of about 10 km in last six hours and will continue to move in that direction and with that movement it is likely to cross the Northern Andhra Pradesh, just north of Vishakhapatnam, around noon tomorrow," he added.
He also said that after the decay of cyclone, the remnant of cyclone as low pressure is likely to remain for another two-three days and that is likely to move in north-westwardly direction initially and then will have more northerly component.
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"And under influence of that , fairly widespread to widespread light to moderate rainfall activity is likely over Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Eastern Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gangetic West Bengal ," he added.
Tens of thousands of people from low-lying areas of coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh have been evacuated as the state intensified preparations to face Cyclone Hudhud.
Officials in the two states also said they had set up 24-hour emergency control rooms and cancelled the leave of civil servants working in high-risk areas. Nine of Andhra Pradesh's 13 districts and 16 of Odisha's 30 districts are on alert.
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Train services have also been badly affected in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.