Hyderabad: Cyclone Fani, churning over southeast and south west Bay of Bengal and heading towards the east coast of India has become a glimmer of hope for Telangana, which is reeling under an intense heatwave.
According to the Indian meteorological department, cyclonic storm presently lay 770km south-southeast of Chennai and was heading in northwesterly direction. It was likely to further intensify into very severe cyclonic storm and turn north-northeast to head towards Odisha coast after Wednesday.
While Andhra Pradesh and Odisha were on high alert and even the Indian navy and army were put on alert, Telangana was looking forward to rains under the influence of the cyclonic system to get some relief from the scorching heatwave.
As the temperatures touched a high of 45 degrees in some places and were in the range of 43 to 44 degrees in most of the areas of the state, officials in Telangana have sounded an alert and asked the people to avoid going out during the day.
In Adilabad where the temperature crossed 45 degrees four people have lost their lives due to the heatwave. At several places including the district headquarter of Adilabad roads were wearing a deserted look as people including the daily wage earners were unwilling to venture out.
“It is already feeling like May”, said Surya Babu, a resident of Adilabad. “Normally this kind of situation prevail[s] in May at the peak of summer but we are suffering now it self”, he said. Adilabad recorded a maximum temperature of 45.3 degrees on Monday.
The situation in neighbouring Nizamabad district was also equally bad where Makloor recorded 45.2 degrees. The people in Nizamabad city itself were reeling under the impact of the heatwave.
In Hyderabad temperature over the last three days was over 42 degrees but in Tuesday it showed a dip. IMD officials said that situation was likely to remain the same this week but thunder storms will bring some relief over the next week. Maximum temperature over Telangana was 2 to 3 degrees Celsius above normal.
Meanwhile all eyes were on the cyclonic storm Fani which was intensifying as it was moving forward at a speed of 16 kms per hours. However the weather experts warned that as it intensifies into very severe cyclonic storm over the next 24 hours, it will carry wins of 180 kms per hour.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary LV Subramaniam who held a review meeting with the heads of various departments briefed the cabinet secretary PK Sinha about the precautionary measures.
In an unprecedented move, the central government has decided to release advance relief of Rs10.86 billion (Dh569.69 million) in four states which were in the way of the cyclone. While Andhra Pradesh was given Rs2.002 billion and Odisha was given Rs3.4 billion, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have got Rs3.09 billion and Rs2.33 billion respectively.
