Amphan likely to begin landfall from 4 pm onwards

Extremely severe cyclone Amphan is expected to begin its elaborate landfall along the West Bengal-Bangladesh coast between Digha and Hatiya close to the Sunderbans from late this (Wednesday) afternoon to evening hours (around 4 pm onwards), true to  India Meteorological Department (IMD) predictions, with wind speeds of 155-165 km/hr gusting to 185 km/hr.

An IMD update at 2.30 pm said 'the elaborate process of landfall has started. This will continue for four hours. The forward sector of the wall cloud region of the cyclone has entered land over the West Bengal coast.'

Wind intensity at 1.30 pm was higher at 160-170 km/hr gusting to 190 km/hr as Amphan lunged eased into the home stretch, moving to North-North-East at an impressive 27 km/hr. The IMD has put out a high wind warning of 100-110 km/hr gusting to 125 km/hr along and off Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Bhadrak districts Odisha into the afternoon and over Balasore district till evening.

Closest to Sagar Islands

The extremely severe cyclonic storm was located over the North-West Bay of Bengal closest at 90 km to the South-South-East of Sagar Island; 105 km South-East of Ddigha; 170 km East-North-East of Paradip; and 240 km South-West of Khepupara (Bangladesh).  Prevailing wind speeds in Odisha and West Bengal told their own tales with various cities recording high speeds (km/hr):  In Odisha - Paradip-70; Chandbali-44; Bhubaneshwar-28; Balasore91; Puri-15; and Gopalpur-9. In West Bengal, they were Kolkata-50; Dumdum-24; Digha-30; Diamond Harbour-38; Haldia-40, and Canning-26.

Rainfall recorded (in cm) during the 24 hours till Wednesday morning included Paradip-8.5; Chandbali-4; Bhubaneshwar-3.2; Balasore-4.3; Puri-1.6; Kolkata-1.7; Dumdum-.53; Digha-4.4; Diamond Harbour-.75; Haldia-2.1; and Canning-.85. The landfall of the powerful cyclone is feared to cause extensive storm surge, flooding, damage to kutcha houses and other infrastructure, loss of life to man and animals.

High winds, heavy rain alert

For today (Wednesday), the IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy falls at isolated places very likely over the plains of West Bengal; heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places over the hills of West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya; and at isolated places over North Coastal Odisha and heavy rainfall at isolated places over Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

Manu Gupta, Co-Founder of SEEDS, a Delhi-based NGO, said he expected the powerful cyclone to cause extensive damage to people and their and livelihood in the affected region during the time of a pandemic. “Our teams and partners have been deployed on-ground ever since cyclone warnings were released, facilitating timely evacuation of communities at extreme risk. We have activated our response plan and a control room headquartered in Delhi would monitor activities at regular intervals. We are committed to save as many lives as possible at this hour of crisis.”

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