Cyclone dwindles before reaching India

The cyclonic storm off the coast of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh weakened around midnight as it hovered in the sea, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of the town of Machlipatnam, said C.V. Bhadram, director of the Indian Meteorological Department. "The good news is that it has lost its deadly force. There will be no gales, only heavy rains," he said.

The storm, expected to carry winds of 50-60 kph (31-37 mph), was likely to hit the coastal state between the Machlipatnam and Nellore districts around noon (0630 GMT) Thursday, Bhadram said. "We have downgraded the storm to a depression because the winds weakened considerably as it reached the coast," said R.R. Kelkar, director general of the Indian Meteorological Department.

Andhra Pradesh, run by India's most technologically advanced state government, had prepared days ahead for the cyclone, which was churning up winds of about 100 kph (60 mph) in the Bay of Bengal as it moved westward. The army, air force and navy had evacuated 200,000 poor villagers from coastal areas by Thursday morning. Cyclone shelters were supplied with water and food, fishermen's boats were tied together on the beaches and traffic was halted along the coastal highway.

Confident of the preparations, the state's chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, left Wednesday for Japan and China on a mission to lure more technological investment to his state. Villagers had been evacuated to relief camps in four of the state's nine coastal districts along a 500-kilometer (300-mile) stretch that was the most vulnerable to the storm. About 1 million people live in the four districts.

Thousands of people walked to nearby safer villages or cyclone shelters, and others boarded hundreds of buses, jeeps and trucks, transporting them to relief camps. The villagers carried their babies and a few belongings and herded their farm animals. Camps were set up in 150 schools and colleges located on higher ground. Officials said people would begin going back to their homes once they were told the danger had passed.

As the cyclonic storm whirled in the Bay of Bengal, 360 kilometers ( 225 miles) east of Andhra Pradesh, coastal areas between Nellore and Machlipatnam were lashed Wednesday with rain and gale force winds. Because water tanks, rivers and irrigation canals are brimming to capacity after heavy monsoon rains since August, the rains accompanying the storm are likely to flood low-lying areas in the four districts.

Andhra Pradesh is just south of Orissa state, where more than 10,000 people were killed last year in a devastating supercyclone.

(AP)