Cyclone Gulab: Landfall complete, cyclonic storm intensity unchanged; two dead, one missing in AP

New Delhi: The landfall process of cyclonic storm ‘Gulab’ has been completed, said India Metrological Department on Monday. “The landfall process has been completed. However, the system maintains its cyclonic storm intensity and is likely to move nearly westwards and weaken into a deep depression during the next four-five hours,” said IMD. The cyclonic storm Gulab, which was over north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha, weakened into a deep depression at 2.30 am today over north Andhra Pradesh and is likely to continue to move west-northwestwards, weakening further into a depression during the next six hours. “The cyclonic storm ‘Gulab’ (pronounced Gul-Aab) over north Coastal Andhra Pradesh moved nearly westwards with a speed of 26 kmph during last six hours and lay centred at 2230 hrs over North Coastal Andhra Pradesh near Lat 18.4°N and Long 83.5°E, about 180 km west-southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 60 km west-northwest of Kalingapatnam (Andhra Pradesh),” the IMD said. Due to turbulence in the sea on the account of cyclonic storm Gulab, two fishermen from Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam died and one went missing after a boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday. A red alert was sounded in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh for a cyclonic warning, and fishermen were alerted to stay away from the sea by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday