Cyclone Montha: Heavy rains lash Andhra Pradesh coast; IMD issues landfall alert near Kakinada

VISAKHAPATNAM: Cyclone storm Montha is moving towards the Andhra Pradesh coast, bringing heavy to extremely heavy rainfall accompanied by gusty winds across parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh (CAP) since Tuesday morning.Heavy rain in Visakhapatnam, Anakapalle, Kakinada, Tuni and other areas has caused flooding on roads, disrupted vehicular movement and prompted warnings for downstream communities.The cyclonic storm over the west-central Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards at a speed of 15 kmph during the past six hours. It intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on Tuesday (Oct 28) morning and was centred over the same region — about 190 km south-southeast of Machilipatnam, 270 km south-southeast of Kakinada, 340 km south-southwest of Visakhapatnam, and 550 km south-southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha).It is likely to continue moving north-northwestwards and cross the Andhra Pradesh coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam, around Kakinada, on Tuesday evening or night as a severe cyclonic storm, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 90–100 kmph, gusting to 110 kmph.The IMD has forecast that several parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh will experience heavy to extremely heavy rainfall on Tuesday, which may cause damage to power supply, communication networks and water systems.