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Cyclone Amphan: Landfall begins, to continue for 4 hours
The landfall process of cyclone 'Amphan' commenced at 2.30 pm on Wednesday between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya island in Bangladesh, the Met department said.
By
migrator
migrator
Kolkata
The landfall process will continue for about four hours, it said.
"The forward sector of the wall cloud region is entering into land in West Bengal," the Met said.
The intensity of the cyclone near its centre as the landfall process started was recorded at 160-170 kmph, gusting to 190 kmph, it said.
Heavy rain and gale wind have affected several districts in the Gangetic West Bengal since morning and the intensity of the downpour and wind increased gradually with every passing hour.
At 3.05 pm, wind speed at Dum Dum airport was recorded at 76 km per hour, the Met said.
The system is likely to move north-northeastwards after landfall and pass close to Kolkata in its eastern side causing extensive damage and flooding of low-lying areas of the city, the Met department warned.
The Cyclone is 190 km east-northeast of Odisha's Paradip, 65 km east-southeast of West Bengal's Digha, 35 km from Sagar island and 225 km south-southwest of Khepupara in Bangladesh.
Amphan will move north-northeastwards and cross West Bengal-Bangladesh coast between Digha and Hatiya Islands close to Sundarbans around Sagar Island. During landfall, the intensity of cyclone is likely to be 155 to 165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph.
Storm surge during the landfall in West Bengal is expected to be four to six meters above astronomical tide. The surge is expected to inundate low lying areas of South and North 24 Parganas and parts of East Medinipur district.
The wind speed in Kolkata, Hooghly and Howrah is likely to range between 110 kmph to 120 kmph gusting to 130 kmph, which may cause extensive damage in the urban areas also.
In coastal Odisha, gale wind of 100 to 100 kmph gusting to 125 kmph will also impact Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore.
The weather condition would result in uprooting of trees, communications and power transmission poles, bending of telephone lines and extensive damage to the 'kutcha' and even 'pucca' houses and crops and plantations.
The NDRF has positioned over 41 teams to carry out evacuation and relief, Director General S.N. Pradhan had said on Tuesday.
(With inputs from IANS)
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