Cyclone Yaas batters India’s eastern coast

Over 2 mn evacuated, four dead in Odisha and West Bengal even as cyclone loses intensity after landfall

NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR / KOLKATA: Cyclone Yaas, packing winds of up to 130-145 kmph, whiplashed the country’s eastern coasts on Wednesday, dumping heavy rain, damaging houses and farmlands, and leaving at least four persons dead -- three in Odisha and one in Bengal -officials said.

Thick sheets of rain blurred the vast coastline, as the cyclone made landfall around 9 am near Dhamra port in Odisha, with surging waters swamping the mud-and-thatch houses in the low-lying areas, where a massive evacuation drive has been undertaken to move more than 2 million people to safety.

However, Yaas weakened into a severe cyclonic storm in the afternoon. It was earlier classified as a very severe cyclonic storm, leaving the coastal states on edge,

The West Bengal government claimed that at least 10 million people have been affected by the calamity thus far, as it hollered on its destructive path towards Jharkhand.

Yaas is the second cyclonic storm to hit India within a week after ‘Tauktae’ tore into its western coast, causing death and destruction.

Seawater inundated several villages in Bahanaga and Remuna blocks in the Balasore district, and Dhamra and Basudevpur in the Bhadrak district, Odisha’s special relief commissioner PK Jena said.

The administration, with the help of the locals, is taking measures to drain out the saline water from the villages, Jena explained.

Heavy rainfall in the Similipal

AFP/PTI (Top) Residents shift makeshift stalls as water reaches the road at a beachfront area while strong winds batter Balasore district in Odisha on Wednesday. (Below) Villagers wade through a waterlogged and muddy street at a village after the landfall of Cyclone Yaas in West Bengal’s South 24 Paragnas.