The State administration heaved a sigh of relief as Lehar, which began as a very severe cyclone storm earlier this week necessitating precautionary measures on a massive scale, fizzled out without causing any damage.
It rapidly weakened into a deep depression in the early hours of Thursday and crossed the coast near Machilipatnam around 2 p.m. Farmers, who were still recovering from the damage caused by the earlier cyclone ‘Helen’, were also a relieved lot while the railways withdrew its earlier travel advisories. The Indian Meteorological Department said the cyclone would further dissipate into a depression on Friday.
No major damage has been reported from the coastal area of Krishna, Guntur, West and East Godavari districts, considered vulnerable. But there was heavy rainfall at some places in Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts. The weakening of the cyclone is attributed to its entry into colder sea surface coupled with increase in wind shear that was unfavourable for maintaining the intensity.
Warnings withdrawn
While withdrawing its warning messages, the IMD cautioned fishermen against venturing into the sea for the next 24 hours as the condition would be very rough. The deep depression is likely to cause isolated heavy rains in south coastal Andhra and Telangana regions over the two days as it moves before dissipating.
People who were placed in relief camps in the four districts, however, had a tough time in securing essentials from the officials concerned. Long queues were seen in the relief camps set up at Machilipatnam and other places in the two districts.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy reviewed the situation with senior officials and directed them to expeditiously complete enumeration of loses caused to farmers by Lehar as also the recent cyclonic storm Helen.
Disaster Management Commissioner C. Parthasarathy said the national disaster response force teams, that were deployed in the vulnerable districts, were closely monitoring the situation and they would be withdrawn after confirming that there would not be any major impact.
