More than 50,000 people are left homeless after Cyclone Yaas swept into eastern India from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, May 26 submerging hundreds of low-lying villages.
Just days after a storm had torn up the western coast, Cyclone Yaas sped up to 140km p/h, damaging 20,000 traditional mud homes and leaving at least one person dead after a house collapsed.
‘But the figure may rise as reports are yet to reach us from interior areas,’ state minister Bankim Hazra told Reuters.
Effect of Yaas Cyclone in West Bengal pic.twitter.com/TPUUjLtfBj
— Parisangh West Bengal (@ParisanghWB) May 26, 2021
The Bay of Bengal is prone to cyclones at this time of the year, bringing death and destruction to coastal areas in India and Bangladesh.
Authorities had evacuated more than one million people just before Cyclone Yaas hit.
The state’s top bureaucrat, Suresh Mahapatra told reporters that about ‘120 villages had been swamped by heavy ran and seawater whipped up by the cyclone but people in most areas had already been moved to storm shelters’.
Proud of NDRF 🇮🇳#CycloneYaas 🇮🇳🙏 pic.twitter.com/rKFa1CXcAk
— Anupam Kumar Pandey (@AnupamkPandey) May 26, 2021
Mahapatra added that many doctors and hospital staff in the state had been camping in their health facilities and services were continuing as normal as COVID-19 patients were still being treated and a second wave of the coronavirus approaching.
Weather officials in Bangladesh said the storm was likely to swamp low-lying areas of 14 coastal districts, bringing tides 0.91-1.22 meters higher than normal. They advised fishing boats and trawlers to stay in shelter.
PICTURE: Twitter
