Puri/Visakhapatnam: Darkness descended on Saturday morning in Puri, as heavy rains lashed the temple town with visibility hardly 15 metres.
Nearly one lakh people have left their homes in coastal areas to safer places, the Odisha government claimed, with more evacuating to safety.
In coastal Andhra Pradesh, nearly 20,000 people from Srikakulam coast, nearly 40,000 people from Visakhapatnam, and nearly 4,000 people from Vijayanagaram have left their homes for safer places.
AP government has kept a target of evacuating 1.5 lakh people from Srikakulam, but hardly a few hours remain for the cyclone to make landfall.
