Cyclone Asani is expected to barrelled towards northwest direction for the next few hours and reach West central Bay of Bengal which is near to Andhra Pradesh coast. "Thereafter, it's very likely to recurve slowly north-northeastwards, move along Machilipatnam, Narsapur, Yanam, Kakinada, Tuni and Visakhapatnam coasts and emerge into west central Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh coasts by today evening," said the weather office.
The weather office has been keenly observing the cyclonic storm since the first indication of its formation emerged last week. It has released 30 national bulletins since May 7, anticipating the route of the cyclone and notifying local administrations about the possible damage it could cause.
High Alert in Odisha
Heavy downpour is expected at one or two places over Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas and Nadia districts of the West Bengal till May 12 morning. In Odisha, five districts - Koraput, Malkangiri, Ganjam, Rayagada and Gajapati - are on "high alert".
Several Flights Cancelled
As many as 17 domestic flights were cancelled at Chennai airport. Here it is also learned that 10 flights from Chennai to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Mumbai and Jaipur were cancelled yesterday.
Today, a total of 17 flights have been cancelled so far in which 6 from Hyderabad, 6 from Visakhapatnam, 2 from Rajahmundry and 1 each from Bangalore, Jaipur and Kolkata, according to the Chennai Airport Authority.
Several Flights Revised
There are number of flights revised as well. “Revised status of today's flight ops in view of #CycloneAsani - All IndiGo flights (22 Arrivals plus 22 Departures ) stand cancelled. Air Asia cancelled one flight from Bengaluru & one from Delhi, decision about evening flights awaited, said K Srinivasa Rao, Airport Dir, Visakhapatnam, ANI tweeted.
Why And How THis Cyclone Called Asani?
In 2000, a group of countries called WMO/ESCAP (World Meteorological Organisation/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), which incorporated Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, decided to start naming cyclones in the region.
Cyclone Asani, which formed over southeast regions of Bay of Bengal and intensified into a ‘severe cyclone’ on Monday, was named by Sri Lanka. Asani means “wrath” in Sinhalese.