Cyclone Montha triggers floods, heavy rain across coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh

Heavy rain and strong winds battered Vijayawada city on Wednesday morning, uprooting several trees and flooding many roads. The severe cyclonic storm Montha had made landfall near Narasapur in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district late Tuesday night, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

According to the IMD’s 5 am bulletin, the weather system crossed the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts between Machilipatnam and Kakinada, close to Narasapur, between 11.30 pm on October 28 and 12.30 am on October 29. The landfall process lasted nearly five hours, beginning around 7.30 pm on Tuesday and concluding around 12.30 am on Wednesday.

After landfall, Montha moved northwestwards at about 10 kmph and weakened into a cyclonic storm. By 2.30 am, the system was centred roughly 20 km west–northwest of Narasapur, 50 km northeast of Machilipatnam, 90 km west–southwest of Kakinada, 230 km southwest of Visakhapatnam and 470 km southwest of Gopalpur in Odisha.

The IMD said the cyclone's rear sector had also entered land and predicted that Montha would continue to move northwestwards across coastal Andhra Pradesh, maintaining cyclonic storm intensity for another 6 hours before weakening into a deep depression.

Widespread rainfall is expected across Andhra Pradesh and Yanam, with heavy to very heavy rain likely at several places until October 29. Extremely heavy rainfall exceeding 20 cm is forecast at isolated locations during the same period.

On October 30, light to moderate rain is expected in many areas, with heavy rain at isolated places over north coastal Andhra Pradesh.
(With inputs from PTI)