Cyclone Nilofar, the second one to hit India after ‘Hudhud,’ has gained intensity and is expected to hit the Gujarat coast on Friday morning.
“It has turned into a very severe cyclonic storm. Its current location is in the Arabian Sea, about 1165 kilometres south-west of Kutch. During landfall, the wind speed will be in the range of 100 to 110 km an hour. The maximum wind speed can be 125 km an hour. Kutch and Saurashtra are likely to experience heavy to very heavy rainfall from Thursday night till Friday. Some parts in these regions may also receive extremely heavy rains,” Manorama Mohanty, Director, Ahmedabad Meteorological Centre, told The Hindu .
Gujarat is preparing its disaster management apparatus and has issued an alert to fishermen and farmers.
“The rains will start on Thursday. All those living in ‘kacha’ houses will be moved to storm shelters,” said Kutch Collector M.S. Patel. “We are making an evacuation plan and evacuation will begin from Tuesday.”
