The landfall process will continue for the next 3-4 hours with a sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting up to 155 kmph along and off Bhadrak and Balasore districts
Very severe cyclonic storm Yaas started battering the northern coastline of Odisha with powerful winds and rains on Wednesday morning as it made landfall at Bahanaga block around 9am with sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting up to 155 kmph.
The director of regional meterological centre, HR Biswas, said the landfall process will continue for the next 3-4 hours with a sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting up to 155 kmph along and off Bhadrak and Balasore districts. Similarly, the wind speed is likely to remain 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph along and off Kendrapara district. It will decrease gradually after the landfall, becoming 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph by evening. After landfall, the system is very likely to move northwestwards across interior districts of Odisha and weaken gradually.
Under the impact of the cyclone, very heavy rains were reported from Chandbali in Bhadrak and Paradip in Jagatsinghpur districts. In the last 24 hours, Chandbali reported 27.3cm of rainfall followed by 19.7cm at Paradip. Due to the tidal surge, sea water entered villages in Talsara region of Jaleswar block of Balasore district.
The first report of cyclone-related casualty came from Keonjhar district when an elderly man was crushed to death after strong winds uprooted a tree at Panchapalli village under Anandapur block. In Balasore town, a 20-year-old man was seriously injured after a tree fell on him at Railway Colony. In Chandipur coast, sea water entered a hotel resort.
Odisha special relief commissioner PK Jena said that ahead of the landfall, more than 500,000 people have been shifted to various cyclone and flood shelters across the coast.
Jena said light to moderate rainfall at many places with heavy to very heavy rainfall and extremely heavy rainfall of more than 20 cm is likely at isolated places in Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, and Keonjhargarh. Heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places in Puri, Khurda, Angul, Deogarh, and Sundergarh on Wednesday. Tidal waves of height 2-3 metres above astronomical tide are likely to inundate low lying areas of Balasore, Bhadrak and about 2 metres above the astronomical tide are likely to inundate low lying areas of Medinipur, South 24 Parganas, Kendrapara, & Jagatsinghpur districts around the time of the landfall.
