Odisha has stepped up its preparedness as Cyclone Arnab over the Bay of Bengal moves towards the Andhra Pradesh coast.
Southern Odisha is likely to experience heavy to extremely heavy rainfall as the system intensifies ahead of its expected landfall on October 28.
The state government has mobilised disaster-response teams and strengthened evacuation arrangements to protect people in vulnerable districts.
The state government has intensified preparedness, arranging to shift around three thousand pregnant women to hospitals and making cyclone shelters and temporary evacuation centres operational.
Eight NDRF teams and forty ODRAF teams have reportedly been deployed at strategic locations. Eight ministers, including the Deputy Chief Ministers of the state cabinet, have been assigned responsibility for eight districts likely to be badly affected by very heavy rainfall.
The India Meteorological Department forecasts that the cyclone will intensify into a severe and subsequently a very severe cyclonic storm before crossing the Andhra Pradesh coast on Wednesday.
Odisha authorities have urged people in vulnerable areas to follow official advisories and cooperate with evacuation measures.