Website is currently down so posting the Update just drafted on Cylone Helen here, Hopefully it will be up soon. India is currently looking at a land falling Cyclone Friday afternoon in Andhra Pradesh close to Ongole. The storm now an equivalent of a Tropical Storm in the Pacific is producing winds around 100G110kph. A far cry of the strength Cyclone Phailin was producing for the area nearly 2 month ago. But still is carrying with it the threat of damaging winds near the coast along with a storm surge risk about 1-2 meters high. At landfall the storm be packing winds gusting near 120kph off south Andrah Pradesh. This will bring the risk of damage to thatched roofs and huts. Communications and electrical lines could also be impacted but not to the point where it will be out for an extended period of time. There will be the threat from the surge of low lying coastal flooding near the immediate coast and significant beach erosion. Off the coastline through Saturday morning sea conditions will continue to remain hazardous and rough making any travel dangerous to life threatening by boat. The big threat with this storm though will be the heavy rainfall though. Isolated pockets of severe weather will bring the threat of river flooding near the coast and extending inland through Saturday. People should be advised in southern Andrah of the risk of flash flooding. A side effect of all tropical systems is the problem of tornadoes. A few of the outer rain bands already impacting the coastline could be impacted by the whirlwinds creating significant damage. Tornadoes in tropical systems tend to remain weak and fast moving. This makes them hard to spot or forecast. In response to this threat 4,000 people have been evacuated from the immediate coastline and National Disaster Response force has pre-prepared equipment and personel near the coast to be ready in force to tackle the damage and recovery of this storm system in to the weekend. On a comparison to Typhoon Haiyan and Cyclone Phailin this storm is much much weaker, but still something to not take lightly through the coming days. Even severe cyclonic storms on the equivalent of Severe Tropical Storms can producing damaging weather. With that said I hope everyone stays safe ahead of this storm. Make smart decisions and as always thanks for staying with us at Westpacwx
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 06:38:05 +0000
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