Heavy rains lash Andaman & Nicobar, UT braces for cyclone 'Asani'

Heavy rain coupled with strong winds pounded Andaman and Nicobar Islands on March 21 under the influence of a depression over the north Andaman Sea, which is likely to intensify into a cyclone by evening, the India Meteorological Department said.

The depression over the north Andaman Sea intensified into a deep depression, moving north-northeastwards at a speed of 12 km per hour, it said.

The weather system, which lay about 110 km east-southeast of Port Blair on Andaman Islands, is expected to further intensify into a cyclone by March 21 evening, the IMD said.

“It is likely to move nearly northwards along and off Andaman Islands towards the Myanmar coast during the next 48 hours,” it said in a bulletin.

People living in low-lying and flood-prone areas in the archipelago have bee

n evacuated and housed in temporary relief camps in North and Middle Andaman and South Andaman districts, officials said. Inter-island ferry services as well as shipping services with Chennai and Visakhapatnam have been stopped, and all educational institutions closed in the wake of the inclement weather, they said.

Around 150 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed and six relief camps opened in various parts of the islands, the officials said.