Kolkata, May 26: Not just in Odisha, very severe cyclone Yaas has thrown normal life out of gear even in West Bengal, damaging almost three lakh houses and 154 dams, according to a primary survey.
Several people were seen running to take shelter in Mandarmoni area in East Midnapore and in Diamond Harbour in South 24 parganas as the sea and river conditions became extremely rough not just for very severe cyclone Yaas but also for full lunar eclipse.
In the Bakkhali area fish were seen off shore and the children crying as their books got wiped off and shelters completely destroyed.
“We couldn’t bring much stuff with us to the safe centre and our house got completely wiped off due to the flood and we have lost everything,” said a weeping woman.
Despite being pushed to safe zones, due to the high rise of water even few safe zones got flooded and people were also seen running to save domestic animals in the Kultali area. Cars and bulldozers were also seen floating on the high tide.
In Howrah, Belur Math premises got flooded as the water level of Ganga rose due to the eclipse.
Meanwhile, NDRF personnel were seen ferrying elderly people to safer places.
The West Bengal state government had opened 14000 relief camps where 15 lakhs people had taken shelter there. Relief funds worth rupees 10 crore was distributed and all the people were given dry foods and water in all the shelter camps.
In Odisha, the Odisha government also distributed dry foods and the relief materials were sent by Red Cross Bhawan in Bhubaneswar phase–wise to the affected areas.
“Almost 1000 packets were readied yesterday and 1500 new packets were readied today. The packets include stuff like chuda (flattened rice), jaggery, biscuits and water bottle,” said the secretary of Red Cross adding that the affected people will be provided cooked and dry foods for the next three days.
The first relief box was sent to the Rajnagar block of Kendrapara, followed at places like Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak and Balasore by almost 3, 200 Red Cross Volunteers.
Fire Service personnel in Odisha’s Chandbali area were seen rescuing cows stuck in the shed.
Notably, East Zone IMD director Sanjib Bandhopadhyay said that the very severe cyclone by the evening will reduce to severe cyclone and further weakening will convert into cyclone and will enter North-West of Jharkhand by Wednesday night leading to heavy rains in Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced seven days of relief for families affected due to the cyclone
