Cyclone Yaas that hit the coastal areas of north and north-eastern Bay of Bengal on Wednesday have affected about a crore people in Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, adding however that only one person had reportedly been killed "that too because he had ventured out of the relief camp to catch fish without informing the authorities.
Packing winds of up to 130-145 kmph, Yaas whiplashed the country’s eastern coasts on Wednesday, dumping heavy rain, damaging houses and farmlands, and leaving at least four persons dead — three in Odisha and one in Bengal — officials said.
Mainly East Midnapore, and the Sunderbans areas of South and North 24 Parganas were affected by the cyclone that on Wednesday made its landfall near Dhamra port some 25 km south of Balasore town bordering Bengal.
While in terms of intensity, Amphan made a record landfall (last year) in about 200 years, while Yaas left an impact that could be far more disastrous than the former, said experts claiming it was not the storm or the wind gust but the brimming over of the sea and river waters into the
villages inundating thousands of hectares of land and displacing lakhs of people that would hurt Bengal for years to come.
The impact of the cyclone was complete in around the resort townships of Digha, Mandarmani, Tajpur and Shankarpur which perhaps for the first time since their coming into being saw sea flood, locals said.
“We saw Tsunami on the TV but never saw the sea behaving in such an unruly manner before … Those who have been born and brought up by the sea side and grown up in the lap of Bay of Bengal will fear venturing into it for many months,” said Durgapada Jana a hotelier at Digha, adding how the sea water raised its giant hood much like the way it did during Tsunami, brimmed over the twenty-feet high guard wall and entered town sweeping away whatever came in its way.
The whole six-km coastal road that houses hundreds of shops and hotels were under a waist-deep water giving the Army, Police and NDRF men a trying to time to carry out rescue operations when reports last came in.
The villages in Khejuri, Heria, Nandigram blocks were under water with sea and river waters pulling down hundreds of houses and inundating large tracts of agricultural lands and sousing tons of paddy stored as yearly ration by the villagers.
“They have nothing to eat, nowhere to go and nothing to wear … these people are farmers till today but from tomorrow they will be beggars as their lands have been rendered uncultivable for at least 3-4 seasons thanks to the saline water from the sea,” said Anupam Maiti, a former Panchayat member over telephone.
“Hundreds of villages in South 24 Parganas and many in North 24 Parganas have gone under water due to breach in bunds,” said the Chief Minister who was camping for the past more than 36 hours at the control room at State Secretariat.
“We have shifted 15 lakh people to more than 14,000 rescue camps and other safer areas,” the Chief Minister said. At least 134 river embankments have been breached by in South and North 24 Parganas alone and brakish river water is gushing into the villages submerging thousands of acres of agricultural lands, she said.
“Three lakh houses have been damaged. Agricultural lands have been affected due to ingress of saline water from the rivers in Sunderbans area … these figures are only preliminary and can go up,” she said
adding how “aligned sectors like fishery, poultry and dairy have been hugely affected as everything has gone under water.”
The mouth of Bay of Bengal in the Sunderbans delta is replete with large network of rivers all branches of Hooghly and Padma (in Bangladesh) each often more than a mile wide and impacted by tidal waves of the sea. Each time there is an embankment is a breached the agriculture gets crippled, experts said.
In South 24 Parganas, many places, including Kakdwip, Fraserganj, Bakkhali, Sandesh Khali, Kulpi, Gosaba, Mousumi Islands and Maipith in
the Sunderbans region had been flooded, displacing about 3.5 lakh people. Thousands of kutcha houses were extensively damaged in the surging water and gale wind, the Chief Minister said.
Flooding was also reported from Sagar Island at the confluence of Hooghly and Bay of Bengal with sea and river water rising about five feet and entering the famous Kapil Muni Ashram near the beach on the island, district officials said.
Analysing the extent of loss Proferssor Sugato Hazra an expert said “though in terms of wind speed and ferocity this is lesser than Aila and Amphan the devastating impact that it will leave is far more
bigger because it is carrying more water and humidity and it is a slower moving cyclone which means it will last longer … besides it is coinciding with the high tide on a full moon day”.
The Chief Minister quoting experts said on Wednesday and Thursday nights could become even more dangerous because of the high tide coupled with cyclonic water.
“Again as this cyclone is going to Jharkhand there they will open the hill dams in Jamshedupr, Ranchi and Dhanbad which will again affect Bengal downstream.”
The Army has deployed 17 columns in Bengal to assist the State administration, the defence official said. Rescue operation by the Army was also on at Orphuli in the Howrah district, he said.
The rain is going to continue even on Thursday with extremely heavy rainfall in taking place in East and West Midnapore districts and heavy to very heavy rainfall in Jhargram, Bankura, Purlia and South 24 Parganas.
Mamata is likely to visit the affected areas of Digha, Sandeshkhali and Hingalganh on May 28 and 29, Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said.
Thick sheets of rain blurred the vast coastline, as the cyclone made landfall around 9 am near Dhamra port in Odisha, with surging waters swamping the mud-and-thatch houses in the low-lying areas, where a massive evacuation drive has been undertaken to move more than 20 lakh people to safety.
It hollered on its destructive path towards Jharkhand.
Seawater inundated several villages in Bahanaga and Remuna blocks in the Balasore district, and Dhamra and Basudevpur in the Bhadrak district, Odisha’s Special Relief Commissioner PK Jena said.
The administration, with the help of the locals, is taking measures to drain out the saline water from the villages, Jena explained.
Heavy rainfall in the Similipal National Park in Mayurbhanj district sparked fears of a flash flood in the Budhabalang river. By afternoon, the water level in the river stood at 21 metre against the danger level of 27 metre, the special relief commissioner said.
Restoration work for power lines have started in several places of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Jajpur districts after cables snapped, Jena said, adding that the storm will likely move to Jharkhand by midnight.
Odisha has shifted 5.8 lakh people to safer places amid concerns over spread of Covid-19 infection at the temporary shelters, given the fact that the country is battling the raging second wave of the pandemic.
In certain areas, the waves were seen surging as high as the coconut trees that line the popular beaches.
