Cyclone "Nisarga", which is headed towards the Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts, is likely to intensify into a "severe cyclonic storm" in the next 12 hours, and is expected to make landfall close to coronavirus-hit Mumbai on Wednesday.
This will be the second cyclone to strike India in two weeks and the first to hit the financial capital, which has logged over 41,000 coronavirus cases so far, in over a century.
The storm - expected to have a wind speed of 100 km per hour, gusting up to 120 kmph - is "very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during next 12 hours," the India Meteorological Department or IMD said this afternoon.
"It is very likely to move nearly northwards during next few hours, recurve north-northeastwards thereafter and cross north Maharashtra and adjoining south Gujarat coast between Harihareshwar and Daman, close to Alibag (Raigad District, Maharashtra) during the afternoon June 3 as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph," the IMD statement read.
Nearly 20,000 people from villages near Gujarat coast are likely to be evacuated, news agency PTI reported, quoting officials. "Nisarga is a severe cyclone and we're expecting a wind speed of 90-100 kmph, which I think is negotiable. Still, as a precautionary measure, we are going to start the evacuation of people from the coastal areas of the two states (Maharashtra and Gujarat)," the NDRF chief had said yesterday.
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