Rains are expected to commence along the Andhra coast from Saturday, as Cyclone Vardah continued to move northwest, towards the state on Friday night.

According to Skymet Weather, Vardah further has further intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and will start moving towards the Andhra Pradesh coast on Saturday, which would result in rains reducing over Andaman and Nicobar Islands and rains commencing over Andhra Pradesh.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala were also predicted to witness isolated showers along the coast.

As of Friday evening, reports suggested that Vardah was 990 km southeast of Vizag, 1,090 km east-southeast of Machilipatnam and 250 km west-northwest of Port Blair.

With cyclone Vardah expected to make landfall between Kakinada and Nellore on December 12, the Andhra Pradesh government is gearing up to tackle the situation.

Fishermen have been advised not to go to sea.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority guidelines, an L1 level alert has been issued, and the state and centre will remain in readiness to provide assistance if needed.

A control room has been set up at the Command and Communications Centre in Vijayawada with the helpline - 08662488000.

Krishna district officials have also set up a helpline - 08672252572 and 1077.

The Visakhapatnam emergency toll free number is 1800-425-0001.