Cyclone Yaas pounds Odisha-Bengal coasts, may move to Jharkhand by midnight

Cyclone Yaas pounded the beach towns in north Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal as it hit the coast around 9 am on Wednesday with a wind speed of 130140 kmph inundating the lowlying areas amid a storm surge officials saidThe location of the landfall was north of Dhamra in Odishas Bhadrak district and 50 km south of Balasore close to Bahanaga block on the coast they saidThe wind speed during landfall was at 130140 kmph gusting to 155 kmph as per Doppler radar dataThe landfall process is likely to be over by 1 pm The maximum impact will be in Balasore and Bhadrak districts Odishas Special Relief Commissioner PK Jena saidThe sea will remain rough till Thursday and the accompanying rain will continue he saidThe wind will slow down by the evening and the cyclone is likely to leave Odisha for Jharkhand by midnight Jena saidOdisha has shifted 58 lakh people to safer places while West Bengal has moved 15 lakh people ahead of the cycloneAlso Read Cyclone Yaas begins landfall near Dhamra port in Odisha with wind speed of 130140 kmphThere was no report of any major damage in Odisha though some incidents of trees getting uprooted have taken place Jena saidWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said most parts of the state were affected by the cyclone and the rain it brought alongShe urged the people of the state particularly those in Purba Medinipur South 24 Parganas North 24 Parganas Paschim Medinipur Howrah Hooghly Purulia and Naida to stay indoorsAlmost the whole of West Bengal has been flooded Several embankments have been damaged and seawater entered areas like Sagar and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas as well as coastal areas like Digha Shankarpur and Mandarmani in East Midnapore Low lying areas have been extensively damaged the chief minister saidBanerjee who monitored the situation from the secretariat the entire night said that the spring tide has added to the woesEfforts are being made to evacuate more people from the coastal areas of Digha she saidDigha in East Midnapore sharees border with Odishas Balasore districtBanerjee said that 70 km of embankments have been damaged in East Midnapore while in South 24 Parganas 15 embankments had met a similar fateReports of damage caused due to flooding by river water were received from areas like Joynagar Basanti Kultuli Namkhana in the South 24 Parganas district she addedThe chief minister said that though there has been no report of any disruption in Kolkata all flyovers have been shut as a precautionary measureWe will keep on monitoring the situation as it may continue for four to six hours after hitting the land she saidThe West Bengal government has opened a centralised control room at the state secretariat and several small control rooms in the coastal areasThe maximum wind speed in Digha reached around 90 km per hour It was 68 kmph at Fraserganj in South 24 Parganas and in Kolkata the highest wind speed was recorded at 62 kmphIn the 24 hours till 830 am Digha received 55 cm rainfall Diamond Harbour got 33 cm rainfall Haldia 32 cm rainfallKolkata got 224 cm rainfall Salt Lake received 305 cm rains Contai got 542 cm rains and Kalaikunda received 22 cm rainfallBanerjee said the NDRF SDRF and at least 2 lakh policemen are working in tandem to tackle Yaas The Army has also been kept on standby and would be deployed if neededMost parts of Odisha also received rains said Umashankar Dash a scientist at the Regional Meteorological Centre in BhubaneswarChandbali in Bhadrak district received 273 cm rainfall the highest amount of rainfall in the last 24 hours in the state followed by Paradip 197 cm Balasore 51 cm Bhubaneswar 49 cmThe IMD has forecast massive storm surge for some places like Mohanpur in Bhadrak where the seawater may ingress 9 km into the landDash said that surge of 1538 metre is likely in the area when the wind speed hits a peak during landfall The reason behind such a high storm surge is also partially due to fullmoon activityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever