India begins mass evacuation ahead of second cyclone in a week
Indian authorities yesterday ordered the evacuation of nearly half a million people out of the path of a new cyclone heading towards eastern India just one week after another deadly storm smashed into the west coast.
The India Meteorological Department said Cyclone Yaas had formed in the Bay of Bengal and was expected to barrel into West Bengal and Odisha states tomorrow. Neighboring Bangladesh has also been put on alert. Yaas could pack gusts of up to 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour as a “Very Severe Cyclonic Storm” at the time of landfall, the department said.
It added storm surges of up to four meters (13 feet) high were “likely to inundate low-lying coastal areas”. Evacuations in coastal districts and the Sundarbans mangrove forest, a UNESCO world heritage site, started on Sunday, West Bengal disaster management minister Javed Ahmed Khan said.
Odisha’s special relief commissioner, Pradeep Jena, told local media evacuations were being planned. The state also made arrangements to provide power back-ups to oxygen plants supplying hospitals with COVID-19 patients. Additional oxygen supplies were also being sent to hospitals with virus patients in areas that could be affected by Yaas. The military and disaster teams have been deployed to help with the preparations and potential rescue operations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday.
