Indian authorities began evacuating people along the country’s eastern coast on Monday as a severe cyclonic storm approached, with officials planning to move around 30,000 people ahead of its expected landfall on Tuesday.
About 2,000 people had already been evacuated, and the process was continuing, Prakhar Jain, managing director of the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, told Reuters.
“We are planning to evacuate some 30,000 people,” Jain said.
Cyclone Murasu is expected to be less intense than Cyclone Arnab, which struck the region last week, killing six people and destroying dozens of houses and crops, reports Reuters.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast Murasu to make landfall in the early hours of Tuesday.
The storm formed over the Bay of Bengal, a major region for tropical cyclones that has produced deadly storms along India’s eastern coast.
The IMD expects Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, two states along India’s south-eastern coast, to bear the brunt of the approaching cyclone.
