Cyclone Yaas likely to make landfall in West Bengal: Met Dpt

Kolkata: A low pressure has been formed today over East Central Bay of Bengal and is very likely to concentrate into a depression over East ...

Kolkata: A low pressure has been formed today over East Central Bay of Bengal and is very likely to concentrate into a depression over East Central Bay of Bengal within May 23, the Regional Meteorological Department said on Saturday. By May 24 it will intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm and will move north-northwestwards and will reach North Bay of Bengal near West Bengal and adjoining north Odisha and Bangladesh coasts around May 26.

“The coastal areas will start getting moderate rainfall with wind speed up to 40-45 kmph. The rainfall will gradually increase for entire Gangetic West Bengal and the landfall is likely on the West Bengal coast with wind-speed upto 120-160k mph,” the Regional Meteorological Department director GK Das said.

However, Cyclone Yaas will be less destructive in comparison to super cyclone Amphan that made a landslide at West Bengal last May. “According to radar reading Yaas will remain as a cyclone and chances are less for it to get converted into a super cyclone like Amphan,” added Das.

Meanwhile, all the District Magistrates near the coastal areas were seen asking people to take shelter in concrete buildings. They also requested the fishermen to come back by May 23 morning. The DMs were also seen monitoring the dams in the coastal areas so that no untoward incident takes place.

A 24-hour control room has been opened in ‘Upanna’, a place near Nabanna where the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be present on May 25 and 26.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also opened a control room and divided it into three shifts so that round-the-clock monitoring can be done.

“The three shifts are made to monitor the developments. The shifts are arranged from 10am-2pm, 2pm-10pm and 10pm-6am. Besides, 20 disaster management teams have also been made in order to tackle the situation,” the sources at KMC said.

Notably, 115 disaster management teams have been sent across the state. A total of 78 trains of South-Eastern Railways too have been cancelled due to Cyclone Yaas.