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Evacuate people, stock essential items: Centre tells states as they brace for Cyclone Amphan
Earlier in the day, Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and assured her help to deal with the situation arising due to the cyclone, news agency ANI reported.
The Centre on Tuesday asked state governments to ensure timely and complete evacuation of people from low lying areas in the path of Cyclone Amphan and maintain adequate quantities of essential supplies.
West Bengal and Odisha will be worst affected by the cyclone, which is packing in wind speed up to 200kmph.
The instructions came as cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired the third meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) to review the preparedness of states and central ministries and agencies to deal with the Cyclone Amphan, which is likely to make landfall on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and assured her help to deal with the situation arising due to the cyclone, news agency ANI reported.
HR Biswas, the director of Meteorological Centre in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, said ‘Amphan’ lay centred over the west-central Bay of Bengal, about 520km south of Paradip (Odisha), 670km south-southwest of Digha (West Bengal) and 800km south-southwest of Khepupara in Bangladesh.
It is likely to weaken to an extremely severe cyclonic storm, move north-northeastwards over the Bay of Bengal and cross West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts between Digha and Hatiya Islands during Wednesday afternoon or evening as a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 155-165 kmph gusting to 180 kmph, he said.
Such wind speeds, according to weather officials, could make Amphan one of the biggest storms to hit India in about a decade.
The cyclone is being continuously tracked by the Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
IMD director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said its impact is unlikely to be very severe on Odisha since the super cyclone is gradually weakening.
However, coastal districts like Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore are likely to be battered by heavy rains coupled with high-velocity winds from Tuesday evening, he said.
Evacuations
Odisha and West Bengal were moving families to more than 1,000 shelters in government offices and educational centres and were converting Covid-19 quarantine centres into cyclone shelters.
Trains plying thousands of migrant workers from Delhi to Odisha were diverted to avoid the cyclone’s path.
Odisha’s special relief commissioner (SRC) PK Jena said the evacuation of people living in low-lying areas, thatched and mud structures in the coastal districts is under progress and the process will be completed by evening.
Jena said the state government has made arrangements for evacuating more than 11 lakh people as a precautionary measure.
“We are in constant touch with the collectors of the 12 districts which have been put under alert in view of the cyclone. We are fully prepared to deal with any eventuality,” Jena said.
Chief secretary AK Tripathy said four senior officers with vast experience in handling such calamities have been deputed to different districts on the direction of chief minister Navin Patnaik to supervise preparations and guide the local administration.
As high-velocity winds may damage power infrastructure and roads, necessary equipment and manpower have been mobilised in order to ensure quick restoration in the affected areas, he said.
Fourteen units of National Disaster Response Force and 20 teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) have been deployed in the districts likely to be hit.
Cyclone Amphan comes as India eased restrictions under the fourth phase of lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease, which has infected more than 100,000 people and killed over 3,000.
(With agency inputs)
