Don't panic, take steps to avoid loss of life & assets, CM urges people
KOLKATA: As cyclone Yaas inches closer to the eastern coast and is likely to make a landfall at Balasore coast (North Odisha) at a speed of 155 to 165 kmph on Wednesday afternoon, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged people to take precautionary measures to avoid loss of life and property without panicking, considering that "the cyclonic storm would be stronger than that of super cyclone Amphan."
The Bengal government had avoided major loss of lives by evacuating nearly 10 lakh people during Amphan last year. This time, too, the Mamata Banerjee government is evacuating the same number of people and has thrown open 4,000 cyclone centres giving safe shelter places to the residents of coastal and riverine areas. "The cyclone could be of stronger intensity than that of Amphan. It would last for 72 hours. At least 20 districts would be affected. Apart from the most vulnerable ones like North and South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore and Kolkata, districts including Howrah, Hooghly, West Midnapore, East Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, Jhargram and Murshidabad would also be affected," said Banerjee, who will be personally monitoring the situation from the control room at Upanna on May 25 and 26.
There will be heavy rainfall in North Bengal districts, including Darjeeling, Kalimpong, North and South Dinajpur. Banerjee has requested fishermen not to venture out. "The alert for fishermen has been sounded much earlier. But on many occasions they were found venturing out, risking their lives. This time, strict monitoring is going on so that not a single boat ventures out," Banerjee said.
According to the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Alipore, the deep depression on the Bay of Bengal has intensified into cyclonic storm Yaas on Monday morning and it is now moving north-westwards with a speed of 7 kmph, lying centred about 590 km south-southeast of Balasore.
The state government has deployed 51 disaster management teams as the first priority is to save lives.
Power back-ups at hospitals, vaccination centres and cold chains, where vaccines are stored, including the Central Medical Store at Moulali, have also been ensured. The Covid vaccination drive will not be halted in Kolkata and other high alert districts due to Yaas and the state government has set up dedicated disaster management teams to deal with the functioning at vaccine centres.
"Around 1,000 teams have been kept ready for power restoration and 450 teams are on stand-by to ensure restoration of telecom services," Banerjee said. She also urged people to cooperate instead of creating a hue and cry if the services do not get restored within 48 hours as it is a time-consuming exercise.
Army, Navy and Indian Coast Guard are working in close cooperation with the state government. Tarak Singh, Member Board of Administrators, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, visited all the pumping stations and spoke to senior officials of the drainage department. All the pumps have been kept ready. The KMC has kept teams ready to clear uprooted trees. It was decided that the trees blocking the main thoroughfares will be cleared first and then those obstructing lanes and bylanes will be taken care of. The building department of the civic body has kept the demolition squad ready as old buildings that have not been maintained for years together might get affected.
The Kolkata Police have also taken a series of precautionary steps and decided to close all flyovers at the time of cyclone. Unified Command Centre has been set up at the city police's headquarters at Lalbazar and four helpline numbers – 9432610429, 9432610430, 9832610436 and 9432610450 – have been introduced to extend support to people in need.
CESC has also kept its team ready to carry out restoration work and also announced to suspend power supply at various parts of the city, including Jadavpur, Manicktala and Beliaghata at the time of the cyclonic storm.
