Cyclone Yaas will spare Kolkata and would have less impact on the coastal Bengal compared to what happened last year during Amphan super cyclone, Regional Met office said today.
“Yaas cyclone would not come deep into Bengal. It will cross Odisha’s Balasore, would make landfall there, and then apparently march towards Jharkhand. Coastal Bengal would get very heavy rainfalls. Kolkata would not be hit by the cyclone as Balasore (where the landfall would happen) is 200km away from Kolkata,” said Sanjib Banerjee, chief of regional Met office, Kolkata.
He said during Amphan last year, the cyclone took the shape of super cyclone and hit South 24 Parganas and continued its devastation in Kolkata.
“In this case, Yaas would not even touch Bengal, so far, we have gathered information. It would hit Odisha,” said the Met official.
However, coastal districts of Bengal, along with gangetic Bengal, would get heavy to very heavy rainfalls because of the cyclone. Around 20 districts have been declared orange zone by the Met office.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seems to be better prepared this time—the government is planning to shift around 10,000 people to shelter homes, in the coastal belt of Bengal, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore. More than 90 companies of NDRF have been deployed in the Bengal-Odisha border near Balasore.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah today evaluated the situation during a video conference and allotted Rs 600 crore each for Odisha and Andhra Pradesh and Rs 400 crore for West Bengal.
State disaster management department officials have been asked to report on duty urgently, and the chief minister herself would be present in the state secretariat control room on May 25 and May 26. Government officials have been asked to take extra measures during relief operations, considering the COVID-19 situation.
