The Odisha government has asked district authorities to prepare for evacuation from 13 districts of the state as the cyclonic storm, Jawad, has been forecast to hit the coast on Saturday.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the low-pressure area forming in the south Andaman Sea will intensify into a depression and move towards the Odisha coast as a cyclonic storm on December 4. On the morning of Cyclone Jawad landfall, the wind is likely to reach 80kmph gusting to 90 kmph.

The state is expected to be battered by heavy to very heavy rainfall ahead of the Cyclone. The IMD has issued a red alert for Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts. An orange alert has been issued in Kendrapara, Cuttack, Khurda, Nayagarh, Kandhamal, Rayagada and Koraput districts for Saturday.

As part of extensive pre-emptive measures, the government has chalked out a disaster management strategy for rescue and relief operations.

National Disaster Response Force, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and fire department personnel have been put on high alert.

State relief commissioner P K Jena said in an advisory that the sea condition is likely to get very tough as the wind speed reaches 45 to 55 kmph, gusting to 65 kmph on Friday.

After the depression takes the shape of a cyclonic storm, the system will move northwestward and reach north Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast around Saturday morning.

“Though it is clear that the cyclonic storm will approach the Odisha coast, it is too premature to say where it will exactly make landfall. However, under its impact, several coastal districts of Odisha will experience light to moderate rainfall from December 3,” IMD director-general Mrutunjay Mohapatra said.