Ahead of Cyclone Yaas, 2 people electrocuted in Bengal Tornado, 40 houses destroyed
Kolkata/IBNS: Two people were electrocuted as a tornado hit Chinsura in Hooghly district and Halisahar in North 24 Parganas of West Bengal ahead of Cyclone Yaas, which is expected to make landfall on the Odisha coast on Tuesday morning.
The tornado, which lasted for a minute and a half, destroyed 40 houses, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at a press conference.
#WestBengal: A #tornado-like storm reported from Bandal in Hooghly & Halisahar in North 24 Parganas around 4 pm. today. Multiple properties reportedly damaged in the storm that lasted for few minutes. @indiablooms pic.twitter.com/KCx2kiALCE
— Deepayan Sinha | দীপায়ন | दीपायन (@sdeepayan) May 25, 2021
The affected people, assisted by local panchayat members, are being shifted to a school building.
"I have spoken to all the district magistrates on Cyclone Yaas. I will stay in Nabanna (the state secretariat) tonight. I will monitor the situation closely," said Banerjee.
Speaking about the precautionary measures, Banerjee said 54,000 officers and relief workers, 2 lakh police and Home Guard personnel, along with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, will be deployed to tackle the fallout of the storm.
The Indian Navy on Tuesday said that its rescue teams have already been deployed at the coastal areas of West Bengal and Odisha in view of severe cyclonic storm Yaas which will start its landfall on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, in view of the weather warning by IMD over Cyclone Yaas, flight operations at NSCBI-CCU Kolkata Airport will be suspended from 8:30 AM up to 7:45 PM on Wednesday, the Airports Authority India (AAI) in Kolkata said.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.