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Army on standby in Orissa: PTI

The situation was reviewed at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday, while the state administration closely monitored the movement of the cyclonic storm, which lay centred at about 450 km east-south-east of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The Met office warned that the system was likely to intensify and move in a west-north-westerly direction, causing rains at several places in the coastal belt and a few places in the interior.

The state government had despatched a company of specially trained state armed police to Berhampur in southern Orissa, while two more companies have been kept ready for deployment in other coastal areas, official sources said.

The district collectors had been asked to stock relief material and medicines in vulnerable areas.

Senior officers have been directed to review the situation in the districts of Ganjam, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Puri.

Although the local Met office forecast that the accompanying gale would not exceed 60 km per hour, the people in coastal areas, yet to overcome the trauma of the Super Cyclone almost a year ago, have moved to safer places.

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