Odisha on Tuesday stepped up its preparedness for the very severe cyclonic storm Arnab over the west-central Bay of Bengal, deploying multiple rescue teams from the fire services, ODRAF, and NDRF in view of heavy rainfall warnings across southern districts.
Orange and Yellow warnings extend to many other districts. Meanwhile, the Odisha government has urged news outlets, digital content creators and social media platforms to rely on official weather bulletins and avoid circulating unverified cyclone tracks, landfall predictions or impact assessments. Heavy rainfall, including extremely heavy showers at isolated places, is likely, accompanied by winds of 40-50 kmph and gusts up to 60 kmph. A yellow alert has also been issued for 16 other districts. On October 28-29, a red warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall was issued for some places, with extremely heavy rain at one or two places over Gajapati, Ganjam, Rayagada, Koraput and Malkangiri, accompanied by thunderstorms and gusty winds of 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph.
IMD officials said the weather is expected to deteriorate across Odisha from Tuesday, with an orange alert issued for Puri, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput and Malkangiri districts. Such speculative forecasts could create panic, disrupt economic activity and undermine public confidence in disaster-response measures, the government said, advising that weather information be verified against IMD bulletins and advisories issued by the Special Relief Commissioner.
