Cyclone rips through three districts of West Bengal 800 left homeless

EOI, Kolkata: A deep depression over northeast Bay of Bengal on Thursday intensified into cyclonic storm Komen, with the MeT department forecasting heavy to very heavy rains with isolated extremely heavy rains in Gangetic West Bengal.

Komen, which lies centred around 95 km south-southwest of Chittagong in Bangladesh and about 300 km east ­southeast of Kolkata, has moved northwards and crossed the Bangladesh coast by Thursday afternoon, the Met department said.

Komen, while making a landfall in Bangladesh, brought in heavy downpour in several south Bengal districts from late afternoon, precipitating the already wet conditions.

In view of the situation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cut short her UK trip and returned to Kolkata around 5 pm on Friday. After landing at the Kolkata airport, she tweeted: “Just landed in Kolkata. Held a meeting with officials at airport itself. We are closely monitoring the flood situation. Over 26,000 people have been rescued.” From the airport Mamata went to the state secretariat Nabanna and held an emergency meeting to review the situation.

In view of the situation, a flood and cyclone control room has been set up. During the day, the task force members held video conference with many districts affected by the floods, cyclone and incessant rains.

Alipore Meteorological office spokesperson in Kolkata, G C Debnath, said heavy to very rains are expected in the next 48 hours in Gangetic West Bengal, as the Komen enters land area and gradually weakens, bringing in its trail heavy downpour. Satellite pictures shows heavy rains clouds over Bengal, he added.

While many low lying areas in Birbhum, Burdwan, Hooghly, East and West Midnapore, Nadia and North 24 Parganas were inundated, in many places, embankments in Sunderbans have breached as high winds and waves lashed the coastal belt.

State Minister for Food and Supplies Jyotipriyo Mullick, who holds the charge for North 24-Parganas, said vast areas in the Sunderbans have been inundated, following high tides and torrential rains.

In Habra and Ashok Nagar, where a cyclone had hit on Wednesday — razing several hundred houses to the ground and uprooting trees — the government has arranged for temporary camps.

While 250 families have taken shelter in Habra, another 165 have taken refuge in Ashoknagar. “The affected families have been given rice, soya bean, potato, sugar and cooking,” said Mullick.

Meanwhile, the chief minister has called a meeting at 3.30 pm on Friday to take stock of the situation.