Yaas affects at least 1 crore people in Bengal, more than 15 lakh evacuated

KOLKATA: At least one crore people have been badly affected in very severe cyclonic storm Yaas that wreaked havoc in Bengal after it made landfall near Bahanaga block — 50 km south of Balasore and north of Dhamra — in Odisha's Balasore district around 9 am on Wednesday with a wind speed of around 130-140 kmph, gusting up to 155 kmph.

Though only one person was killed in the state with a massive evacuation drive being carried out under direct night-long supervision of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nabanna, the cyclone so far claimed at least three lives in adjoining Odisha. More than 15 lakh people were evacuated and given shelter in 10,998 relief camps in the state.

The landfall of Yaas on Wednesday continued for four hours before it moved towards the north-northwest. It started losing its strength soon after hitting the Odisha coast to pass towards Jharkhand. The very severe cyclone coupled with high tidal waves wreaked havoc in several seaside areas, including Mandarmoni, Digha, Tajpur in East Midnapore and Fraserganj, Bakkhali and Gosaba in South 24-Parganas. The scene of destruction was the same at Hingalganj, Dhamakhali and Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas. East Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas have been the worst-affected districts where villages went under waist-deep water. The water was chest-deep at many places, damaging more than three lakh houses. There were flood-like situations in Sandeshkhali, Namkhana, Patharpratima, Basanti, Canning, Budge Budge, Digha, Shankarpur, Tajpur, Ramnagar, Contai and Nandigram.

With heavy tidal waves since early Wednesday morning, water started entering villages breaking embankments and guard walls one after the other. Around 134 embankments were damaged. The tidal waves were strong enough to even wash away cars and bikes at Digha and its adjacent places. Water levels of several rivers, including Bidyadhari, Hooghly and Rupnarayan, have increased and embankments have been badly damaged. Tidal waves touched coconut treetops at certain places in the coastal parts of East Midnapore.

Massive damage was caused to agriculture and its allied sector, including horticulture and animal husbandry. Unlike Amphan, the cyclone, however, had no major impact in the city on Wednesday as it had a narrow escape as Yaas moved towards Jharkhand after the landfall. The wind speed in the city remained around 62 kmph. The sky in the city remained cloudy the entire day with intermittent rainfall coupled with gusty winds resulting in the accumulation of water at areas including Kalighat, Chetla and Rashbehari. There was 31 mm rainfall in the city in the past 24 hours. The temperature started decreasing in Kolkata from Tuesday. The highest temperature in the city hovered around 30 degree Celsius and the lowest stood at around 25 degree Celsius.

Traffic movement on flyovers in the city — Maa Flyover, AJC Bose Road Flyover, Gardenreach Flyover, Taratala Flyover, Park Street Flyover, Ultadanga Flyover, Chingrighata Flyover and Gariahat Flyover — remained suspended as precautionary measure till late afternoon. Pavement dwellers and those staying at different parking lots near Vivekananda Flyover were also evacuated.

"High tide due to the full moon on Wednesday coupled with the cyclone caused a heavy surge in water level in sea and rivers. It is a major cause of concern. Already water has entered several villages that led to flooding in major parts of the state," the Chief Minister said during a Press conference at around 9.45 am after monitoring the situation night-long from the war room at Nabanna.

Banerjee was at the state Secretariat the entire night and monitored the situation continuously for two whole days. She called up concerned District Magistrates as and when she noticed unimpressive performance in terms of evacuating people from coastal and riverine areas.

Besides keeping a constant watch over the situation from Nabanna war room, Banerjee briefed the media again at around 2 pm about the massive devastation caused by the cyclone in the state. "We have received preliminary reports on damages from districts. It would take at least 72 hours to complete the assessment. I would urge people not to worry as the state government will always be with them. First, let us tackle the situation to save lives," Banerjee said, adding that the death of a person, who was killed at Ramnagar II block in East Midnapore, was "accidental", the reason being he went out of the flood centre to get his fishing net. Banerjee expressed her gratitude to all agencies that worked with the state government to combat the cyclone.

Banerjee also directed Health Secretary N S Nigam to take necessary measures to tackle the post-cyclonic health-related issues and also directed the Additional Chief Secretary of the state PHE department to continue the supply of packaged water to people at the cyclone-hit areas till the situation improves or else they would start suffering from diarrhoea.

The danger, however, still continues to loom large for the next couple of days in the coastal and riverine areas of Bengal despite Yaas having weakened into a 'cyclonic storm' by Wednesday evening before entering Jharkhand. It has been predicted that the water level in the sea and rivers may surge by about 5.33 metres during the high tide. The state government apprehends heavy inundation as it is an issue in large parts of South Bengal districts.

The Chief Minister urged the administration and commoners to be alert and stay on guard as water could start gushing in at any time if rivers overflow from Wednesday late night. She also requested people to minimise the use of electrical gadgets and to keep the power off in their houses if possible to avoid any untoward incident in the next two days.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Alipore also predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in various pockets of East Midnapore and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia in the next two days. Banerjee will conduct a virtual review meeting in this connection at 3 pm on Thursday.

"Strong winds will continue to sweep through East Midnapore at a speed of around 70-80 kmph, gusting up to 90 even hours after landfall on Wednesday while in some pockets of South 24-Parganas the wind speed was around 60-70 kmph, gusting up to 80 kmph. Districts like Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram and West Midnapore will continue to witness wind of around 50-60 kmph, gusting up to 70 kmph on Thursday as well," said head of RMC Sanjib Bandyopadhyay.

He further added: "Light to moderate rainfall has been predicted in Gangetic West Bengal. East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in various pockets in the next 24 hours. Isolated places in the western districts and Malda, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong in the north will witness heavy rainfall on Thursday."