Hyderabad, May 19: Hundreds of people were evacuated from 777 villages in four coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh which are set to be hit by the cyclonic storm Laila by tomorrow morning, officials said today.
The coastal regions have been experiencing heavy rains since this morning under the influence of the cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal.
The villages in East Godavari (338 villages), West Godavari (48), Krishna (233) and Guntur (158) districts have been declared as vulnerable, they said.
The officials have asked fishermen to totally suspend fishing operations and coastal hutment dwellers to move to safer places. People in Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur, Krishna, West and East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts were also asked to remain indoors, they said.
The cyclonic storm centred about 200km South-Southwest of Machilipatnam is likely to cross Machilipatnam on May 20.
–Agencies