Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government is gearing up to face the “very severe cyclonic storm” Lehar, expected to be almost same in the intensity as cyclone Phailin which is likely to cross the state between Machillipatnam and Kalingapatnam near Kakinada around Thursday noon.
As per the IMD bulletin issued at 1730 hours today, Lehar is over the southeast Bay of Bengal and remained practically stationary during the past three hours and lay centred at 1430 hours today over the southeast Bay of Bengal, about 1200 km east-southeast of Machillipatnam on the Andhra coast.
“The system would intensify further gradually into a very severe cyclonic storm and would move west-northwestwards and cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Machillipatnam and Kalingapatnam near Kakinada around November 28 noon,” state Disaster Management Commissioner C Parthasarathi told reporters here tonight.
Under the influence of the system, moderate rainfall at many places would commence from November 27 afternoon over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and south coastal Odisha.
