Typhoon Vayu, which strengthened into a “very serious cyclonic tornado” and transformed its course a little, and will not touch Gujarat shoreline, climate predictors said on Thursday.
Ahmedabad IMD said the typhoon would pass by the shoreline near Veraval. According to private predictor Skymet Weather, Vayu is chasing north-northwestwards and will pass by the Gujarat shoreline.
IMD’s earlier weather description had said it could touch the Gujarat shoreline somewhere between Veraval in the south and Dwarka in the west on Thursday evening.
Here are the live updates:
3:11 pm: Hefty rainfall as Typhoon Vayu skirts Gujarat coast
Cyclone VAYU located near 20.5N/69.3E at 1330 IST is 120 km Southwest of Veraval & 120 km south of Porbandar. It is moving northwestwards & has started skirting the Saurashtra Coast. Heavy Rainfall likely to continue over the coastal areas during next 3 hours.
— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) June 13, 2019
12.59 pm: Ministry of Earth Science releases orange message
Ministry of Earth Science releases an orange note, meaning ‘be prepared’, as Typhoon Vayu moved over Northeast and touching East central Arabian Sea.
12.47 pm: NDRF moves pregnant woman to hospital
Cyclone Vayu – @NDRFHQ team evacuates and shifts a pregnant lady to hospital from Siyalbet village in Jafrabad, Gujarat. pic.twitter.com/lti1qUYUf3
— Prasar Bharati News Services पी.बी.एन.एस. (@PBNS_India) June 13, 2019
11.53 am: Typhoon Vayu has the power of a group 2 typhoon, says Skymet. It declares the Cyclone Vayu is behind the strength of category 2 typhoon.
11.46 am: No losses so far, says Other Chief Secretary
“Effect of Typhoon Vayu has been minored at most of the airports of Gujarat. No injury to any airport setup or amenities has been described so far,” Other Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar says.
Pankaj Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary of Revenue: No casualties have been recorded due to #CycloneVayu till now. The deaths (6 deaths in last 2 days) is not due the cyclone, rather it is due to monsoon. #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/ssUu3X5HGY
— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2019
“Conditions are regular at Surat, Bhuj, Keshod, Kandla, Jamnagar, Vadodara, Ahmedabad. Diu, Porbandar and Bhavnagar Airports that are presently perceiving a wind speed b/w 30-40 kmph gusting up to 60 kmph have been asked to carefully monitor the situation and take note of Meteorological data,” he says, mentioned ANI.
11.37 am: Information for Maharashtra
NDMA declares it is expected to be 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph over north Maharashtra Coast and northern parts of east-central Arabian Sea. The sea condition is very expected to be very irregular to high along and off north Maharashtra coast and extraordinary over northern parts of east-central Arabian Sea.
11.26 am: Storm surge forecast for low lying coast areas of Gujarat
Gale winds speed of the order of 135-145 kmph gusting to 160 kmph expected to overcome over the north Arabian Sea and Gujarat shore.
Storm Surge of the height of 1.5 – 2.0 m above the astronomical tides likely to inundate the low lying coastal areas of #DevbhoomiDwarka, #Porbandar, #Junagarh, #Diu, and #Gir Somnath districts in the afternoon.
IMD
— NDMA India | राष्ट्रीय आपदा प्रबंधन प्राधिकरण 🇮🇳 (@ndmaindia) June 13, 2019
8.27 am: Flights postponed at 5 Gujarat airports
The Airports Authority of India broadcasted that flight procedures will continue to be postponed at five airports in Gujarat for 24 hours from midnight Wednesday to lessen the harm to airport structure and to evade inconvenience to travelers due to the typhoon.
Since all the airfields in Kutch and Saurashtra area have been requested to shut their processes totally, flights to these destinations from Ahmedabad Airport stand invalid for Thursday, PTI reported.
8.15am: Railways cancels trains to Kutch and Saurashtra
In a statement, the Western Railway said it has negated trains going near Kutch and Saurashtra region for two days. As a protective measure, the Indian Railways has publicized that all the trains for this area have been either short-terminated or void for two days, starting 6 pm Wednesday
8.02am: Different trains for relief and saving
To support authorities in relief and rescue work, the railways has kept different trains prepared for positioning in those parts after the typhoon makes landfall.
“Different trains with six to 10 coaches each will be shaped, to be kept in ready condition at the safe site to be moved in critical conditions,” the Western Railway said.
Areas likely to be affected
The Gujarat government said the typhoon is likely to affect Kutch, Morbi, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Devbhoomi-Dwarka, Porbandar, Rajkot, Amreli, Bhavnagar and Gir-Somnath regions. Break has been stated in schools, colleges and ‘anganwadis’ on Wednesday and Thursday in these 10 provinces.
Coast Guard, Armed Forces on alert
The Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force and the Border Security Force have been put on high aware, PTI conveyed.
While the state administration has said all fishermen and their boats have already returned to the coast after getting the notice, harbors have been asked to hoist storm caution signal number 8 and 9 to convey “great hazard”.
Based on the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) advice, Great Danger 8 (GD-8) signal has been lifted at Porbandar and Okha ports, while GD-9 signal has been raised at Diu, Veraval, Navlakhi, New-Kandla, Sikka, Mundra, Madvi and Jakhau harbors.
Updating the media about measures to deal with the typhoon, Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue, Pankaj Kumar said police would do night guarding in helpless areas to make sure no one is left behind.
“Our goal is to guarantee zero fatality. We plea to outsiders to refrain from traveling helpless areas near the shore. We have positioned 33 teams, each having 90 to 100 personnel, of National Disaster Response Force and nine teams of State Disaster Response Force in these 10 regions,” he said.
A defense release said the Army has selected 24 columns on standby and is prepared to carry out any rescue and relief missions. Each column has an asset of about 70 people from infantry/artillery, signal, engineers and Army medical corps.
Added information is, that ships and aircraft of this region were spread at various places to permit search and rescue readiness post landfall of typhoon.
“The state government has decided to hang processes at all the ports situated on Gujarat’s shore. As a safety measure, all the airports in Saurashtra area will continue closed till the cyclone recedes. Bus amenities to pilgrimage locations in that region have also been invalid,” Rupani said after the evaluation meet in Gandhinagar.
- Modi on Wednesday directed folks in his home state to track real-time statistics given by local agencies to stay harmless.
After an evaluation assembly with officials this afternoon, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani appealed to folks to unite in the removal procedure so that there is no loss of life.
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