Just 9 days after a powerful tropical cyclone hit India along the Arabian Sea coast; a storm has struck the country’s northeast from the Bay of Bengal. Firstly, According to the India Meteorological Department; Cyclone Yaas slammed into the north Odisha coast near Balasore at 10:30 local time (05:30 Universal Time) on May 26, 2021; bearing sustained winds of 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour; the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane. Moreover, The storm hit close enough to Bangladesh to have major impacts there as well.
#CycloneYaasUPDATE #CycloneYaas moving North – NorthWestward pic.twitter.com/fYp2lUduLQ
— PIB In Bihar 🇮🇳 Mask yourself 😷 (@PIB_Patna) May 24, 2021
Furthermore, The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-colour image of the storm after it made landfall. Moreover, As its storm surge inundated low-lying coastal areas; Yaas pelted the region with heavy rains. It moved north-northwest at a speed of about 10 kilometres per hour and slowly weakened. Thirdly, The storm coincided with a spring tide; especially high tide caused by the Moon and Sun being slightly closer to Earth than usual. Furthermore, According to news reports; Yaas has inundated hundreds of villages in Bangladesh and swamped tens of thousands of mud houses and temporary shelters in West Bengal.
Cyclone Yaas in India:
Moreover, Heavy rains and howling winds are lashing eastern India as the COVID-stricken country’s second cyclone in as many weeks makes landfall, killing at least three people in Odisha state and forcing more than 1.2 million people to seek shelter. Secondly, Cyclone Yaas, packing gusts of up to 140kmph (87mph), made landfall at about 9 am local time (03:30 GMT) on Wednesday, destroying tens of thousands of houses; forcing the closure of the busiest regional airport in the city of Kolkata, and bringing storm surges to coastal areas.
Situation at Dhamra Port area now.
Cyclone yaas at pick.#CycloneYaas #CycloneAlert#CycloneYaasUPDATE#Yaas #YaasCyclone #yaascycloneupdate
pic.twitter.com/EOsK8sGbBl— Prasenjeet Digar (@impdigar) May 26, 2021
Furthermore, In Odisha, one person died in Keonjhar district’s Panchapalli village and another in Balasore district after trees fell on them, local officials told Al Jazeera. Moreover, In the state’s Mayurbhanj district; the dead body of a 15-year-old boy was found in a pond at Jagannath Khunta village by a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team. Furthermore, The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) classified Yaas as a “very severe cyclonic storm”; as television broadcast images of rough seas; strong winds and rains lashing Odisha, with shops and homes boarded up.
The Tremendous cyclone🌀🌀🌀#Cyclone #Yaas #Yaas
This photage has been taken form odhisha pic.twitter.com/gAbRVLI3jK— 🇮🇳𝐁𝐢𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐆𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐢📈 (@BikramGorai2) May 26, 2021
Lastly, the “Landfall process of Cyclone Yaas is complete. Between 10.30 am (05:00 GMT) to 11.30 am (06:00 GMT), it crossed 20km (12 miles) south from the Balasore coast;” IMD director-general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told Al Jazeera. “The cyclone is now moving towards Mayurbhanj district and Jharkhand (state),” he said.
Visuals from Dhamara as landfall begins #CycloneYaas pic.twitter.com/5e53VR0p56
— Payal Mehta/પાયલ મેહતા/ पायल मेहता/ পাযেল মেহতা (@payalmehta100) May 26, 2021