Super Cyclone ‘Amphan’ is set to make landfall today (May 20) as it has moved closer to the mainland. The extremely severe cyclonic storm Amphan lay at 180 km South of Paradip, Odisha and South-Southwest of Digha in West Bengal as of 2:30 am on Wednesday (May 20).
Three lakh people have been evacuated in Bengal, one lakh have been evacuated to safety in Odisha. On Tuesday (May 19), Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chief Ministers of Bengal and Odisha – Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik assuring them all help from the central government.
North coastal districts of Odisha will experience heavy rainfall whereas very heavy to extremely heavy rains will lash West Mednipore, South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hoogli and Kolkata districts of West Bengal.
India Meteorological Department Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said since the super cyclone is gradually weakening, its impact is unlikely to be severe in Odisha. However, coastal districts like Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore are likely to be battered by heavy rain coupled with high-speed winds.
West Bengal scrambled to evacuate around 3 lakh people from coastal and low-lying areas to shelters as Cyclone Amphan moving at a speed of 180 km/hr is expected to make landfall between West Bengal’s Digha and Hatiya islands in Bangladesh on Wednesday (May 20) and push up the sea level. Seven districts of Bengal are likely to face the direct impact of the cyclone. Kolkata, which is close to the coast, is also on alert.
Earlier on Tuesday, NDRF Chief SN Pradhan in a media briefing said that a total of 40 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in West Bengal and Odisha to deal with any emergency situation arising out of Super Cyclone Amphan.
Amphan – pronounced as ‘Um-pun’, means Sky. The name was given by Thailand in 2004, years ago. The storm is being constantly tracked by Doppler Weather Radar at Vishakhapatnam. Odisha, which was praised for its handling of Cyclone Fani last year, had said last week that it was prepared to evacuate over a million people.
