Cyclone Montha began making landfall near the Andhra Pradesh coast on Tuesday, October 28, evening, with the process expected to take three to four hours to complete. The storm, packing winds of up to 110 kmph, is set to cross the coastline near Kakinada late at night. Authorities in Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Odisha have been placed on high alert, evacuating hundreds of residents from vulnerable coastal areas as heavy rains and strong winds lashed the region since Monday.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Montha has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm, moving north-northwestwards at a speed of 17 kmph over the past six hours. At 6 p.m., it was located around 120 km east of Machilipatnam, 110 km south of Kakinada, 220 km south-southwest of Visakhapatnam, and 460 km southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha). The IMD said the system will cross the coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam around Kakinada as a severe storm, with maximum sustained winds between 90 and 100 kmph, gusting to 110 kmph.
The cyclone’s impact is expected to extend beyond Andhra Pradesh, with heavy rainfall predicted in parts of Telangana, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and West Bengal over the next few days. Disaster management teams and local authorities are on standby to respond to potential flooding, infrastructure damage, and power disruptions in affected areas.
