States gear up to tackle Yaas

Bhubaneswar/Ranchi/ Patna: As the countdown for Wednesday's landfall of the very severe cyclonic storm "Yaas" begins, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday asked officials to take all possible steps to protect human lives. Patnaik conducted a meeting to take stock of the cyclone situation in the state which has already started impacting lives across the coastal districts as heavy rain pounced with blowing of wind at a speed of about 60 kmph.

"Every life is precious, thus all possible steps should be taken to protect life," the Odisha chief minister said.

While the severe cyclonic storm Yaas is moving at a speed of around 15 kmph and presently lies about 180 km off Paradip coast, Odisha government rushed men, machines and medicines to the districts likely to be affected before Wednesday noon.

The Doppler radar at Paradip has meanwhile located the "eye" of the severe cyclonic storm Yaas, sources said.

"To be very specific, the cyclone is likely to make landfall near Dhamra port between Basudevpur in Bhadrak district and Bahanaga in Balasore district on Wednesday," Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena informed Patnaik at the review meeting.

The SRC said the landfall process will begin at 4 am of Wednesday and continue for four hours till 8 am and all 77 blocks have been kept under high-impact zone category.

Wind speed during the landfall will be around 140-155 kmph, gusting to 180 kmph, Jena said. On the rescue, relief and restoration preparedness, the SRC said 52 teams of NDRF, 60 teams of ODRAF, 206 Fire Service teams and 86 wood cutting teams of forest department have already been deployed in 10 coastal and adjoining districts.

Keeping in view the tidal surge warning of 2 meter to 4.5 meters during the landfall time, which will continue for about four hours, Jena said evacuation process is going on in full swing.

Over 3 lakh have already been evacuated from the low- lying, local surge pockets and vulnerable areas to safe place.

Jharkhand on high alert over severe cyclonic storm 'Yaas" has evacuated people from vulnerable areas in East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and other districts bordering West Bengal and Odisha to safer places while the operation is going on to deal with the crisis, a top official said.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a high-level meeting reviewed the preparedness of the state and asked officials to be on high-alert to deal with the situation and act on war- footing.

"The state has deployed eight units of the NDRF in areas likely to be affected by the cyclone... The cyclone is likely to severely impact Kolhan division that comprises East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Saraikela-Kharsawan. Bokaro and Khunti are also likely to be severely impacted...All those in thatched houses and huts in bordering areas with West Bengal and Odisha are being shifted to shelter homes," Secretary, Disaster Management Department, Amitabh Kaushal said.

State capital Ranchi is likely to be lashed with heavy rainfall.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday held a review meeting on impending cyclone Yass and instructed officials to remain alert to deal with the calamity.

Chairing a virtual meeting with officials of disaster management and other departments and also district magistrates, the chief minister told them to make all arrangements in advance to meet the challenges of the very severe cyclonic storm likely to make landfall near Dhamra Port in Odisha's Bhadrak district early Wednesday morning.