Odisha braces for another Nature’s fury as IMD issues cyclone alert

Odisha, which has a history of cyclonic strikes in October and November, braces for yet another cyclone even as the State government issued directions to the district officials in vulnerable pockets to stay in preparedness to successfully tackle exigencies of the situation.

As the depression in the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a deep depression and is slowly moving towards the east coast, the State Government has directed the Collectors of all 30 districts to be on alert. Distant Cautionary Signal No-I (DC-1) has been hoisted at all ports of Odisha. Marine fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea till October 29, said senior officials of the revenue and disaster department on Sunday.

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“The deep depression over southwest Bay of Bengal moved northwestwards with a speed of 5 kmph during past 6 hours, and lay centred at 1130 hrs IST of today, the 26th October 2025, over the same region, about 620 km west of Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), 770 km east-southeast of Chennai (Tamil Nadu), 820 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 810 km southeast of Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) and 920 km south-southeast of Gopalpur (Odisha).

”It is likely to move nearly west-northwestwards, intensify further into a cyclonic storm over southwest & adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal during the next 12 hours. Thereafter, it is likely to move northwestwards, then north westwards and intensify into a severe cyclonic storm by the morning of 28 October. Continuing to move further north-northwestwards, it is very likely to cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam around Kakinada during evening/night of 28 October as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph”, IMD’s Bhubaneswar regional Centre stated in the latest weather update.

Though the IMD has cyclonic alert mainly for southern Odisha with an orange warning, the intensity of the storm is likely to be experienced in lesser scale with Andhra Pradesh mostly likely to bear the brunt of the brewing cyclone in the next 48 hours, said an official, adding that at least 15 districts of the State are likely to be battered by heavy rain and squally wind on 27, 28 and 29 October.

The coastal State faces severe cyclonic storms in October and November, sometimes even till December 15. These two-and-a-half months are considered the “cyclone season” in the state.

”Squally weather with wind speed reaching 35-45 kmph gusting to 55 kmph is likely to prevail along & off the south Odisha coast from 26 evening. It is likely to increase, becoming 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph from 27 evening and becoming gale wind speed reaching 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph from 28 evening to early hours of 29th October early hours along and off the south Odisha coast, becoming 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph till 29 October evening and decreasing gradually thereafter. Squally wind speed reaching 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph is likely to prevail from 28 evening to early hours of 29 October early hours along and off the north Odisha coast, becoming 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph till 29th October evening and decrease gradually thereafter,” according to the IMD’s weather bulletin.

The latest cyclone warning is a grim reminder of the catastrophic Nature’s fury that scripted cataclysmic aftermaths in the 29-30 October 1999 super-cyclone.

The super cyclone had impounded the coast with a wind velocity of 270 kilometre per hour to 300 kmph, killing more than 10,000 people mostly in seaside villages of Jagatsinghpur district. There was a gross absence of an early warning system then. The post-disaster rescue operation mechanism had been found wanting then, resulting in the loss of precious human lives.