Dailynewsun Desk:
Very severe cyclone ‘Yaas’ has made landfall near Dhamra port in eastern Indian state Odisha’s Bhadrak district, the Indian Met Department said.
Very severe cyclonic storm Yaas started battering the northern coastline of Odisha with powerful winds and rains. (YAAS Live Stream)
The Yaas made landfall at Bahanaga block around 9am with sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting up to 155 kmph.
Airports in Kolkata would remain shut till 7:45pm on Wednesday and in Bhubaneshwar till 5am tomorrow as a precautionary measure due to the cyclone.
Kolkata has been experiencing medium intensity intermittent rains since last night and this morning but coastal areas of Odisha is being buffeted by strong squally wind and heavy rains since early this morning.
Odisha’s Dhamra port and adjoining Balasore, which is 150 km south of Kolkata, is being pounded by winds up to 140 km per hour and gusting up to 155 km per hour.
The director of regional meterological centre, HR Biswas, said the landfall process will continue for the next 3-4 hours with a sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting up to 155 kmph along and off Bhadrak and Balasore districts. Similarly, the wind speed is likely to remain 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph along and off Kendrapara district. It will decrease gradually after the landfall, becoming 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph by evening. After landfall, the system is very likely to move northwestwards across interior districts of Odisha and weaken gradually, reports Hindustan Times.
A total of nearly 13 lakh people have been evacuated — ten lakh in West Bengal and three lakh in Odisha — from vulnerable coastal areas of the two states.
India Met Department said the windspeed of Yaas may weaken from earlier projected speed of maximum 185 km per hour to 155 km per hour.
Wind speeds will fall to between 65 and 75 km per hour by the evening. Visuals from West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur showed powerful waves lashing the coastal areas.
Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts are likely to be most badly affected. In West Bengal, Paschim Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas districts, and Kolkata may experience stormy weather with wind speeds of up to 120 km per hour.
