NEW DELHI: Indian authorities have shut schools and evacuated tens of thousands of people from low-lying coastal areas as the country’s eastern seaboard braces for the impact of Cyclone Montha later Tuesday.
Swirling over the Bay of Bengal, Montha has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm, and is expected to make a landfall tonight near the port city of Kakinada in southern Andhra Pradesh, the weather office said in its latest bulletin.
The storm is currently hovering around 160 kilometers southeast of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
It is expected to intensify, bringing winds of 90 kph to 110 kph as it pushes toward the country’s eastern coastline and make landfall.
The weather office has issued red alerts for 19 districts in Andhra Pradesh, forecasting extremely heavy rains. The neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerela and Karnataka are also expected to receive moderate to heavy showers.
Disaster teams in Andhra Pradesh have so far moved 38,000 people from low-lying areas to relief camps, according to a state disaster official. The state government estimates around 4 million people to be in vulnerable zones and likely to be affected by the cyclone.
The authorities have readied 1,906 relief camps and 364 school shelters as evacuations continue in 1,238 vulnerable villages, state’s minister for communications Nara Lokesh said in a social media post.
Schools and colleges have been ordered to remain shut till Wednesday and fishermen warned not to venture into sea for fishing. Trains and flight services were partially disrupted on Tuesday.
In Odisha, the state administration has begun shifting around 32,000 people from vulnerable areas to relief camps, a state disaster official said.
Climate scientists say severe storms are becoming more frequent in South Asia. Global warming driven by planet-heating gases has caused them to become more extreme and unpredictable.
India’s eastern coasts have long been prone to cyclones, but the number of intense storms is increasing along the country’s coast. 2023 was India’s deadliest cyclone season in recent years, killing 523 people and causing an estimated $2.5 billion in damage.
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India braces for Cyclone Montha as schools shut and thousands evacuate
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India braces for Cyclone Montha as schools shut and thousands evacuate
- The storm is currently hovering around 160 kilometers southeast of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh
- It is expected to intensify, bringing winds of 90 kph to 110 kph as it pushes toward India’s eastern coastline
Russia sends ‘hundreds’ of missiles, drones at Ukraine
Russia pounded Ukraine with drones and ballistic missiles overnight on Thursday, targeting energy systems and injuring at least seven people in the capital Kyiv, and the cities of Dnipro and Odesa, officials said.
“Hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles targeted energy systems, depriving people of power, heating, and water,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.
Two people were hurt in a “massive” attack on Kyiv, which also hit various buildings, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Klitschko said on Telegram there had been hits on both residential and non-residential buildings on both sides of the Dnipro River bisecting the city.
Fragments had fallen near two residential buildings in one district, but no fire had broken out.
Reuters witnesses heard explosions resound in the city.
Four people, including a baby boy and a four-year-old girl, were hurt in a missile and drone attack on the southeastern city of Dnipro and surrounding district, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram.
One person was hurt in a drone attack on the southern city of Odesa on the Black Sea, which also damaged an infrastructure facility and an apartment building where a fire broke out at an upper floor, head of the city’s military administration, Serhiy Lysak said.
Lysak also said that a fire engulfed pavilions at one of the city’s markets and damaged a supermarket building.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said that energy infrastructure was damaged in Odesa district.
’BLOW TO PEACE EFFORTS’
“Each such strike is a blow to peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Russia must be forced to take diplomacy seriously and de-escalate,” Sybiha said.
Ukrainian officials have met Russian officials under US mediation in Abu Dhabi in the latest US push to end the war.
But the talks so far have failed to resolve differences over Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, sources say, and Russia has pressed on with attacks often focused on Ukrainian
energy facilities
in the depths of a harsh winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday the US needed
to put more pressure on Russia
if it wanted the war to end by summer.
“Hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles targeted energy systems, depriving people of power, heating, and water,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.
Two people were hurt in a “massive” attack on Kyiv, which also hit various buildings, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Klitschko said on Telegram there had been hits on both residential and non-residential buildings on both sides of the Dnipro River bisecting the city.
Fragments had fallen near two residential buildings in one district, but no fire had broken out.
Reuters witnesses heard explosions resound in the city.
Four people, including a baby boy and a four-year-old girl, were hurt in a missile and drone attack on the southeastern city of Dnipro and surrounding district, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram.
One person was hurt in a drone attack on the southern city of Odesa on the Black Sea, which also damaged an infrastructure facility and an apartment building where a fire broke out at an upper floor, head of the city’s military administration, Serhiy Lysak said.
Lysak also said that a fire engulfed pavilions at one of the city’s markets and damaged a supermarket building.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said that energy infrastructure was damaged in Odesa district.
’BLOW TO PEACE EFFORTS’
“Each such strike is a blow to peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Russia must be forced to take diplomacy seriously and de-escalate,” Sybiha said.
Ukrainian officials have met Russian officials under US mediation in Abu Dhabi in the latest US push to end the war.
But the talks so far have failed to resolve differences over Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, sources say, and Russia has pressed on with attacks often focused on Ukrainian
energy facilities
in the depths of a harsh winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday the US needed
to put more pressure on Russia
if it wanted the war to end by summer.
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