Super cyclone Amphan is speedily moving towards Indian coasts as per reports from Indian Meteorological Department. The cyclone is crossing West Bengal coast and Hathiya close to Sunderbans. The landfall process will take up to 2-3 hours for completion.
The cyclone carried wind speed of 165 to 175 kmph, going as high as 190 kmph. As the cyclone moves closer to the coasts and mainland, the Central and state government has already evacuated 6 six lakh people from vulnerable areas.
IMD is expecting severe damage to all types of Kutcha houses, communication disruption as well as tearing of large bushy trees and boats from their moorings.
The super cyclone is causing extreme rainfall over Gangetic West Bengal and heavy rainfall with strong winds over north coastal Odisha. Also going as far as West Bengal, Sikkim, and Meghalaya.
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National Disaster Response Force director general SN Pradhan assured all precautionary measures are in place.
He said, “The biggest challenge is that we are facing two disasters together — coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak and cyclone Amphan. We’ve been spreading awareness about both Covid-19 and the cyclone while evacuating people. If a cyclone shelter has a capacity of 1,000, we can only accommodate half of that in a bid to maintain social distancing norms.”
As of 5:20 pm windspeed in Kolkata and adjoining districts likely to be 110-120kmph. The super cyclone Amphan is expected to completely enter the land by 7 pm according to IMD.