West Bengal and Odisha evacuated more than two million people as a powerful cyclonic storm, Yaas, hit the east coast on Wednesday, causing extensive damage at a time when India is battling the world’s worst outbreak of Covid-19.
Earlier classified as a “very severe cyclonic” storm, Yaas weakened into a “severe cyclonic storm” by afternoon after pounding the beach towns in north Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal with wind speeds of 130-145 kmph. Yaas hit the coast north of Dhamra in Odisha's Bhadrak district, 50 km south of Balasore district, around 9 am. The landfall process was over around 1.30 pm.
Cyclone Yaas destroyed more than 300,000 houses in West Bengal and affected 10 million people, the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said. River embankments were breached, damaging crops and fisheries and livestock farms, she added. The state evacuated about 1.5 million people to safer areas. Neighbouring Odisha moved more than 500,000 people to relief centres where authorities asked people to maintain social distance to check the spread of the coronavirus. News agencies reported that several boats, shops and houses were damaged in the state and scores of trees uprooted.
The second severe storm to batter India in 10 days is posing several challenges to the already stressed authorities in the country, which is battling a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Home Minister Amit Shah asked the state governments to ensure adequate power backup for hospitals, laboratories, cold stores for vaccines and other medical facilities.
Seawater entered several villages in Balasore and Bhadrak districts, Odisha's Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena said. Heavy rainfall in the Similipal National Park in Odisha’s 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 said.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, river transport was suspended. As a precautionary measure, the country readied 15,000 storm shelters that could accommodate as many as 2.5 million people.
Flights affected
The storm impacted several flights in the affected states as airports in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Durgapur remained shut on Wednesday.
Ports, refineries and plants were on alert. Indian Oil Corp, the biggest refiner, had stopped unloading crude oil at Paradip in Odisha, according to a spokesman. The Kolkata Port was on tenterhooks for a while as Hooghly swelled to eight metres, crossing the height of the external lock gate of the Haldia Dock System, an official said.
Ongoing construction activities by oil and gas companies in the region were temporarily suspended, according to Indian Oil. All ships carrying crude oil and other related products were asked to keep a safe distance from the cyclone’s path, it said in a statement, adding that efforts were underway to ensure smooth supply of liquid medical oxygen from the eastern parts to the rest of the country.
More than 20 relief columns of the Indian Army were deployed and another nine were on standby. Heavy and medium transport aircraft of the Air Force flew in over 200 personnel and equipment for the National Disaster Response Force.
Tata Power Co mobilised nearly 10,000 people, including engineers and contract workers, to take up restoration work in the affected region, said Praveer Sinha, chief executive officer of the company, which manages power distribution operations in Odisha.
There were unconfirmed reports of one person having died in Odisha after a tree fell on him. Jena cautioned that the sea would remain rough till Thursday.
In West Bengal, the resort town of Digha in East Midnapore district, which shares a border with Balasore district of Odisha, was completely inundated and the army was called in for rescue operations, a defence official said.
The 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 hours. In Odisha, a red warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall was issued for nine districts.
Jharkhand, which was already on high alert, continued evacuating low-lying areas amid the forecast that the cyclone would be hitting the state by midnight, officials in Ranchi said.
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