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Tens of thousands of people in three Indian states are expected to have been evacuated before the hurricane. Rushed into the east coast later on Sunday, The authorities said.
Cyclones are a common threat in the northern Indian Ocean, but many scientists say that as climate change raises sea temperatures, cyclones become more frequent and severe.
The state-run Meteorological Department of India stated that Cyclone Gulab is expected to make landfall between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh with gusts of up to 95 kilometers (58 miles) per hour.
The Bureau of Meteorology added in a consultation report on Sunday that the storm system from the Bay of Bengal will bring “strong winds and very strong (and) very heavy rainfall.”
Officials in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh ordered tens of thousands of people living in coastal areas to move to shelters, and hundreds of emergency rescuers were sent to the area.
Authorities in West Bengal, in the northern state of Orissa, said on Sunday that although the Gulabo seems unlikely to attack the state directly, they are still taking preventive measures.
“So far, we have evacuated more than 20,000 people to schools (and) government offices, which have been turned into hurricane shelters,” Bankim Hazra, the state minister in charge of low-lying areas, told AFP.
Odisha Special Relief Commissioner PK Jena stated that seven districts in the state are under high alert and evacuation is in progress.
Jena added in a statement that Ganjam, a coastal area, is expected to be severely hit by the cyclone.
In Andhra Pradesh, approximately 85,000 families are expected to move from low-lying areas to temporary relief shelters.
In May, more than 1 million people on the east coast of India were evacuated from their homes before being hit by Cyclone Yass with winds of up to 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour—the equivalent of a second-degree hurricane.
At least 20 people were killed in the storm and tens of thousands were displaced, causing widespread damage worth more than US$2 billion in the states of Odisha and West Bengal, as well as neighbouring Bangladesh.
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