Panic grips Odisha as cyclone threat looms

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Oct 6: Panic gripped people in coastal Odisha on Monday after the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) indicated that there is every possibility of low-pressure area formed over Andaman Sea taking the shape of a cyclonic storm within 48 hours.“The low pressure area over Tenasserim coast and adjoining Andaman sea persists.Associated upper air cyclonic circulation extending upto mid­tropospheric levels alsopersists.It would concentrate into a depression on October 7 and further intensify into a cyclonic storm on October 8,” according to the analysis by IMD.Rain and thunder shower may occur at one or two places in Odisha in the next 24 hours in view of development of a low pressure area over the Tenasserim coast and adjoining Andaman Sea, the weatherman in Bhubaneswar predicted on Monday.According to the Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre, the low pressure area formed over the Tenasserim Coast and adjoining Andaman Sea was likely to concentrate into a well marked low pressure area during the next 24 hours and further concentrate into a depression during subsequent 24 hours causing rain and thundershower in one or two places in the State during the next few days.Meanwhile, panic gripped people in coastal areas of the State with some of the local television channels flashing the possible cyclonic storm as their main headline story.The news about a storm brewing in the sea off Odisha coast exactly a year after cyclone Phailin devastated large parts of coastal Odisha had spread panic among the people.