On Wednesday Cyclone Nisarga hit Maharashtra with heavy rainfall and strong winds. Several thousand people have already been evacuated, and officials stand ready to deal with any eventuality.
Reports suggest that in keeping with the IMD's earlier prediction, the storm has made landfall at the northern coast of Maharashtra. "The right side of the wall cloud region passes through coastal Maharashtra covering mainly Raigad district. It will gradually enter into Mumbai and Thane district during the next 3 hours. Landfall will commence in 1 hour and the process will be completed during the next 3 hours," the IMD had earlier tweeted.
But even as the cyclone made landfall, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar took to Twitter sharing a video of herself inspecting the cyclone preparations. In the video, the Mayor can be seen talking to a gathered group of officials even as rain falls.
"Mumbai Mayor Kishor Pednekar inspected the preparations made by Mumbai Municipal Corporation against the backdrop of the cyclone. The mayor has appealed to people to follow the instructions given by the administration," read the tweet.
Commending Pednekar's work, Maharashtra's Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment, Aaditya Thackeray too shared the post.
"Mumbai mayor on the frontlines with our officers as the storm landfall process on Maharashtra coast begins," he wrote.
Many others on Twitter to have lauded Pednekar. As one Twitter user put it, "Mumbai's lucky to have KP tai as its mayor always at the forefront... excellent leadership".
Incidentally, this is not the first time that the city's mayor has been praised for her efforts.
Earlier, in April, the former nurse had donned her uniform to volunteered at the city's Nair Hospital amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. She had posted a picture of herself in uniform on Twitter.
National Disaster Response Force, along with the local authorities, have been conducting evacuation operations since Wednesday morning.
Several schools have been turned into temporary shelters, and according to Raigad Collector Nidhi Chaudhary, over 13,500 people from the district have been evacuated and taken to safer places.
Several NDRF teams have been deployed across the state to facilitate the evacuation operations.
(with inputs from agencies)
