New Delhi: Cyclonic storm 'Kyarr' is likely to bring very heavy to extremely heavy rains in coastal districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra in the next 12 hours and also cause strong winds, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday. The weather agency has also issued a red alert along the coast of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka for the next two days.
The warning was issued on Friday afternoon by the Mumbai centre of the IMD. A depression over east-central Arabian Sea intensified into cyclonic storm Kyarr in the early morning of October 25 over east-central Arabian Sea, it said.
"The cyclonic storm Kyarr lay centered at 11.30 am hrs IST of today, October 25, near latitude 16.1N and longitude 71.8E over eastcentral Arabian Sea, about 190 km to the west of Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), 350 km south-southwest of Mumbai and 1,890 km east-southeast of Salalah (Oman)," said the bulletin.
"It is very likely to move nearly northwards during the next six hours and then move west-northwestwards towards the Oman coast during the subsequent five days," it said. "It is very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic Storm during the next 12 hours and into a very severe cyclonic Storm during the subsequent 12 hours."
The IMD centre in Mumbai said Kyarr is likely to bring gale winds in coastal Maharashtra and Goa. "Squally wind speed reaching 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph is likely to prevail along and off Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Raigad districts of Maharashtra as well as Goa," it said.
"Wind speed of around 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph is likely to prevail along the remaining coastal districts of Maharashtra, north Karnataka coast as well as in the Arabian sea off the Gujarat coast during the next 24 hours," it added.
Palghar district collector Kailas Shinde has issued a warning to fishermen to not venture into the sea. District fisheries department officials said 1,411 boats had sailed on Friday, of which 1,378 had returned and efforts were on to bring the remaining 33 safely to shore.
In Goa, normal life was thrown out of gear on Friday as heavy rains lashed the state — the IMD predicted that the downpours will continue with the same intensity on Saturday. The Mumbai-Goa national highway was inundated at several places between Canacona and Margao.
Water level in the Mandovi river rose, restricting traffic to the islands of Chorao and Diwar. "In view of the rising water level of the Mandovi, we have temporarily discontinued ferry services from these islands to the mainland," a senior official from the River and Navigation Department said.
An IMD bulletin on Friday afternoon said very heavy rainfall is likely at one or two places in Goa on Saturday as well.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said that disaster management teams are on standby in case of any untoward incident. The state's Fisheries Department has also directed fishermen not to venture into the sea for the next 48 hours.
Karnataka on alert
Heavy rains continued to wreck havoc in coastal and northern Karnataka on Friday, with the IMD forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall across the three districts of Uttara Kannada, Dakshin Kannada and Udupi for the next 24 hours.
Heavy rains are also expected in Belagavi, Haveri districts of north interior Karnataka. The IMD, which earlier issued a red alert for the coastal district till Friday, has sent out an orange alert for the next 24 hours. Private and government schools remained shut in Dakshin Kannada on Friday, which received 32.4 mm rainfall, with Mangaluru, Bantwal and Belthangady receiving excess rainfall compared to last year during the same period.
The IMD and the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) have warned that the sea conditions are likely to be rough along the Karnataka coast during the next 24 hours.
Six teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed for rescue and relief operations -- two of them are stationed in Belagavi, and one each in Gadag, Haveri, Bagalkot and Dharwad. Since the past week, 18 people have died and six are reported missing due to the floods in several districts. Authorities have set up 16 relief camps, currently housing 3,000 inmates.
(With inputs from agencies and Stacy Pereira in Bengaluru)
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