Cyclone Yaas weakens after pounding Odisha-Bengal coasts

Yaas weakened into a severe cyclonic storm on Wednesday afternoon after pounding the beach towns in north Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal with a wind speed of 130145 kmph inundating the lowlying areas amid a storm surge even as the two eastern states battled the Covid19 crisis officials saidYaas which was earlier classified as a very severe cyclonic storm hit the coast north of Dhamra in Odishas Bhadrak district and 50 km south of Balasore close to Bahanaga block around 9 am they saidThe landfall process was over around 130 pm they addedAlso Read One crore people affected three lakh houses damaged due to cyclone Mamata BanerjeeSeawater entered several villages in Bahanaga and Remuna blocks in the Balasore district and Dhamra and Basudevpur in the Bhadrak district Odishas Special Relief Commissioner PK Jena saidThe administration with the help of the locals is taking measures to drain out the saline water from the villages he saidHeavy rainfall in the Similipal National Park in Mayurbhanj district sparked fears of a flash flood in the Budhabalang river In the afternoon the water level in the river was at 21 metre against the danger level of 27 metre Jena saidThe Mayurbhanj district administration has started evacuating certain vulnerable points on both sides of the river and also from some lowlying areas in the Baripada town he saidRestoration works for power lines have started in some places in Jagatsinghpur Kendrapara and Jajpur district after cables were snapped Jena said adding that not much damage was caused in these districtsLocal sources said that a person was killed in Panchupalli village in Anadapur block of Kenojhar district after a tree fell on him but there was no official confirmation of the death The man was identified as Purna Chandra NayakMiddayNews Visuals from GangadharpurBridge as CycloneYaas reaches Odisha Video credit Pallav Paliwal pictwittercomR8BmvQcHKCmdash Mid Day mid_day May 26 2021Besides a man was injured in the Balasore district after he was hit by a falling tree Jena saidThe sea will remain rough till Thursday and the accompanying rain will continue he saidThe wind will slow down by the evening and the cyclone is likely to leave Odisha for Jharkhand by midnight Jena saidOdisha shifted 58 lakh people to safer places while West Bengal moved 15 lakh people ahead of the cyclone amid concerns over following Covid19 norms at the temporary shelters as the two states battled the pandemic reporting thousands of new cases dailyWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that one crore people were affected by the cyclone in the state Three lakh houses were damaged due to the cyclone she saidShe claimed that West Bengal was the most affected state due to the cycloneAt least one crore people in Bengal have been affected by this natural disaster As of now three lakh houses have been damaged One person died an accidental deat even after he was rescued the chief minister saidRelief materials worth Rs 10 crore were sent to the affected areas she saidThe resort town of Digha in East Midnapore which shares a border with Balasore district of Odisha was completely inundated with the Army being called in for rescue operations a defence official saidThe nearby beach resorts of Mandarmani Tajpur and Shankarpur were also flooded with seawaters entering the hotels and flooding the roads besides causing damage to kutcha shops and houses In certain areas the waves even went past the top of coconut trees that line these popular beachesThe Army has deployed 17 columns in West Bengal to assist the state administration the defence official saidRescue operation by the Army was also on at Orphuli in the Howrah district he saidIn South 24 Parganas many places including Kakdwip Fraserganj Gosaba and Maipith in the Sunderbans region were flooded displacing lakhs of villagers as thousands of kutcha houses were extensively damaged in the surging water and gale wind officials saidSeveral rivers in the riverine delta region were in spate owing to the phenomenal rise in water level caused by the dual effect of storm surge from the cyclone and the astronomical tide due to the full moon they saidFlooding was also reported from Sagar island at the confluence of Hooghly and Bay of Bengal The water level rose to nearly five feet in front of the famed Kapil Muni temple near the beach on the island officials saidSome fishing boats and equipment were also destroyed at harbours in Kakdwip leaving the fishermen devoid of their livelihoodWe will starve unless the government provides us with assistance said a hapless villager at Kakdwip as his boat lay broken into piecesThe Kolkata Port was on tenterhook for a while as Hooghly swelled to eight meters surpassing the heights of the external lock gate of the Haldia Dock System an official saidArmy National Disaster Response Force NDRF State Disaster Response Force NDRF and state police and civil defence volunteers were working roundtheclock to move people to safety officials saidWaterlogging was also reported from certain lowlying areas of Kolkata with the authorities facing a tough time in pumping out due to the high tide in Hooghly they saidThe weather office has forecast extremely heavy rainfall in East and West Midnapore districts and heavy to very heavy rainfall in Jhargram Bankura South 24 Parganas districts over the next 24 hoursHeavy rain will occur at isolated places in Purulia Nadia Murshidabad Purba Bardhaman Howrah Hooghly Kolkata North 24 Parganas Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts owing to the effect of Yaas the weather office saidIn Odisha a red warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall was issued for nine districtsHeavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with isolated extremely heavy fall very likely to occur over the districts of Balasore Bhadrak Jajpur Kendrapada Jagatsinghpur Cuttack Mayurbhanj Keonjhar and Dhenkanal the weather office saidThe system lay centred at about 15 kilometre west of Balasore at 130 pm with intensity of 100110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph It would move northnorthwestwards and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm during the next six hours the weather office saidJharkhand which was already on high alert continued evacuating lowlying areas amid the forecast that the cyclone would be hitting the state by midnight officials in Ranchi saidOperations are being executed on warfooting in the vulnerable areas in East and West Singhbhum besides some other districts in view of Yaas Disaster Management Secretary Amitabh Kaushal told PTIEast Singhbhum West Singhbhum and SaraikelaKharsawan districts of the state are likely to witness very high seas situation with wind speed of 92117 kmph the weather office saidWe are ready to deal with the situation and have formed rescue teams DirectorGeneral of Police Neeraj Sinha told PTIThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data 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