Cyclone Yaas pounded the coastal areas in north Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal as it made landfall around 9 a.m. on Mah 26 with a wind speed of 130 kmph. More than a million people in India have been evacuated as the cyclone made landfall on its eastern coast.
The rising river water levels due to the landfall of Cyclone Yaas inundated large parts of Bengal’s coastal districts of Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas, as sea waves were seen touching coconut treetops and cars floating in floodwaters.
The storm, which has now weakened into a ‘severe cyclonic storm’ category, made landfall in Odisha on May 26 morning and crossed the northern Odisha coast about 20 km south of Balasore between 10:30-11:30 a.m. with an estimated wind speed of 130-140 kmph, gusting to 150 kmph.
This is the second cyclone to hit the country in a week, after Cyclone Tauktae killed more than 150 people. It comes as India is already struggling to deal with its Covid-19 outbreak.
Yaas lashed coastal areas with ferocious wind and rain as it made landfall, damaging buildings. India’s meteorological department said low-lying areas near the coast have been inundated due to the rain and tidal surges accompanying the cyclone.
Army teams have been deployed to rescue 32 people stranded in a coastal district because of a storm surge. Weather department officials say they expect wind speeds of 140km/h (87mph) gusting to 155km/h (96mph) as the cyclone completes the process of landfall over the next few hours.
District officials in Orissa and West Bengal states say there are millions of people living in vulnerable coastal areas. Nearly 1,200 rescue shelters have been sanitised in line with Covid-19 safety norms, and health teams have been deployed there – but there are worries that it will be difficult to maintain social distancing protocols as more than a million are evacuated to shelters.
Disaster Management Secretary Amitabh Kaushal reportedly said, “Operations are being executed on war-footing in the vulnerable areas in East and West Singhbhum, besides some other districts, in view of the very severe Cyclone Yaas.”
“We are witnessing high-speed wind and have evacuated about 6,000 persons from thatched houses and danger zones to shelter homes in safer locations,” East Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner Suraj Kumar said. People are being shifted from low-lying areas near the two rivers in the district that are below the danger mark at present, he added.
Officials said the surging waters have breached embankments at several places in the two coastal districts, inundating many villages and small towns. Water levels of several rivers including Bidyadhari, Hooghly and Rupnarayan have risen owing to Yaas and accompanying storm surge.