Odisha faced moderate rainfall as Cyclone Gulab made landfall in Andhra Pradesh. Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena told on Sunday, the storm suddenly picked up speed and moved to the Bay of Bengal towards the landmass at 25 kilometres per hour (kmph) and made landfall 3 hours before the expected time.

During the landfall, the cyclone’s wind speed at Kalingapatanam was around 90 kmph while it was 30 kmph at Gopalpur in Odisha, he said. Bhubaneswar Met Centre Director HR Biswas said, “The cyclone has completed landfall. It will enter Odisha”s Koraput region at midnight and will fade in the next 6 hours.” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, through a video conference, reviewed the preparation and set a target and told the officials that every life is precious and should be protected at any cost. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also called up Patnaik and promised him all help from the government to face the challenges of Cyclone Gulab.

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Forty-two teams of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and 24 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), together with about 102 teams of fire brigade workers, were posted in 7 districts. The state has also taken extraordinary measures after the IMD warned of a tidal increase to half a metre during the cyclone’s landfall.