Cyclone Murasu to hit Andhra Pradesh on 3 November: red alert in five districts

India’s east coast is bracing for its second cyclone in a week. Cyclone Murasu formed over the Bay of Bengal on Sunday, 1 November, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) expects it to cross the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Narsapur on the morning of Tuesday, 3 November.

The IMD forecasts sustained winds of 100 to 110 km/h, gusting to 120 km/h, at landfall. It expects the storm to strengthen into a severe cyclonic storm over the west-central Bay of Bengal by Monday. Some forecasts put the likely crossing point near Bapatla.

On Sunday the storm was about 560 km east-southeast of Chennai and 660 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam.

Who is on alert

• Monday, 2 November (red alert): Krishna, Guntur, Bapatla, Prakasam and SPSR Nellore districts, with extremely heavy rain likely in places.
• Tuesday, 3 November (red alert): Alluri Sitarama Raju and Eluru districts.
• Coast: gusty winds of 80 to 90 km/h on Monday and Tuesday, with heavy to very heavy rain across coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana. Yanam, part of Puducherry, is also in the storm’s path.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu cancelled a trip to Delhi planned for Monday and reviewed relief arrangements instead, his office said.

Odisha braces again

In neighbouring Odisha, rain is expected from Monday and will get heavier on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre. Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said a high alert had been sounded in the south of the state, and people in low-lying and hilly areas are being moved.

The state is still dealing with Cyclone Arnab, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on 28 October. Odisha has reported five deaths and 11 people missing, many of them in Gidipabali, a village of about 26 residents on the Ganjam-Kandhamal border where a landslide buried houses. A team of 177 rescuers from the NDRF, the state’s ODRAF, the fire service, the railways and the Indian Navy is searching there. Arnab set off 10 landslides in Odisha.

The name

Murasu means “war drum” in Tamil. India proposed the name, which is on the list that the region’s countries, Pakistan among them, take turns contributing for cyclones in the north Indian Ocean.

Pakistan’s Met Office has not issued any warning for this storm, which is far out in the Bay of Bengal on the other side of the subcontinent. The IMD’s next bulletins on Monday will fix the landfall point.