The cyclone hit the eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal, where over 1.5 million people were evacuated. Yaas is the second powerful cyclone to hit India in just over a week.
A powerful cyclone made landfall in eastern India on Wednesday, as disaster authorities warned of tidal surges and gusting winds above 155 kph (95 mph).
Over 1.5 million people in the eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal were evacuated ahead of Cyclone Yaas. Television showed rough seas and strong winds and rains lasting Odisha, while shops and homes were boarded up.
The Indian Meteorological Department said the "very severe cyclone" had begun landfall and will cross the two affected states by noon.
Landfall process of very severe cyclonic storm YAAS begins close to Odisha coast, will continue for 3 to 4 hours- IMD
Bhubaneswar:The landfall process of very severe cyclonic storm YAAS has commenced at 9 AM on the north of Dhamra and south of the Balasore coast in Odisha.
IMD DG Mrutuanjay Mohapatra confirmed that the landfall of the very severe cyclonic storm has already started and would continue for three to four hours.
The cyclone YAAS would hit the landmass somewhere near Remuna Sadar block close to Bahanaga coast between the north of Dhamra and south of Balasore.
Mr Mohapatra said the wind velocity at present is 130 to 140 kmph which would further likely increase to 150 kmph.
He said the impact of the cyclone YAAS would be severe in Balasore and Bhadrak district and there would be extensive damages to the properties.
Taking to Twitter Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena also said the landfall process of cyclone YAAS has started and would continue for another three hours.
He said the landfall process would be completed by 1 PM. The cyclone YAAS would proceed to Mayurbhanj where the wind speed would increase to 130 kmph.The cyclone YAAS, would then move to Keonjhar and proceed to Jharkhand.
Mr Jena said heavy rains reported in the entire north Odisha and maximum rainfall of 304 mm was reported in Baripada. He said several blocks in Balasore, Bhadrak Mayurbhanj, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts have reported rainfall between 110 mm to 300 mm.
The SRC said about 5.80 lakh people have been evacuated from ten coastal districts to safer places and cyclone shelters.
In Balasore, 1,52,000 people were evacuated and 1,20,000 people each have been evacuated from Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts while over 60,000 people were evacuated in Mayurbhanj district where the evacuation process is still going on and would continue till this afternoon.
The state government has already deployed 52 NDRF teams, 60 ODRAF teams, 206 Fire Services teams and about 400 Response teams in the rescue and relief operation in the areas likely to be affected by the Cyclone YAAS.Over 4000 workforce have been deployed in the relief and rescue operation in the state.
IMD DG M Mohapatra today appealed to the people of coastal Odisha, more particularly Balasore and Bhadrak districts not to move out of their houses and cyclone shelters till the department declared the cyclone YAAS out of danger.
He said the IMD is monitoring the cyclone YAAS on an hourly basis and indicated that heavy to very heavy rainfall would occur in coastal Odisha and North Odisha today.
Heavy rainfall would also occur in West Bengal and tomorrow isolated rainfall would occur in north Jharkhand and Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, West Assam and Meghalaya tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the flight operation in the Biju Patnaik International Airport was suspended today due to the cyclone YAAS.
The IMD DG said the sea condition will continue to be rough today and the situation will improve only after tomorrow.
Couple of mini tornados hit Bandel in Hooghly district and Halisahar in North 24 Parganas: Mamata
Kolkata:West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said a couple of mini tornados hit Bandel in Hooghly district and Halisahar in North 24 Parganas district.
Ms Banerjee said that two people died due to electrocution at Chinsurah in Hooghly district due to a tornado ahead of the landfall of cyclone Yaas.
“Two people died due to electrocution in Hooghly's Chinsurah today. In another incident in Halisahar, 40 houses were also damaged due to the tornado. At least four to five people suffered minor injuries in this incident. We are getting information that a few people were also injured,” she said
Ms Banerjee urged people not to panic and advised against stepping out on Wednesday unless absolutely necessary.
The chief minister also expressed condolences after two people lost their lives in a lightning strike in Chihsurah in Hooghly district.
Meanwhile, State Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar went to the cyclone control room at state secretariat Nabanna and met Banerjee this evening to discuss the preparedness to handle the cyclone.
Later, Dhankhar tweeted, “Have spoken to Chief Minister @MamataOfficial as regards update #CycloneYaas. At Control Room #CycloneYaas with Chief Minister @MamataOfficial and official. Had useful briefing and interaction.”
It has been learnt that Ms Banerjee will be stationed at the control room from tonight and will remain there till tomorrow.
"I have spoken to all the district magistrates on Cyclone Yaas. I will stay in Nabanna (the state secretariat) tonight. I will monitor the situation closely," the chief minister said.
Ms Banerjee said 54,000 officers and relief workers, 2 lakh police and Home Guard personnel, along with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, will be deployed to tackle the fallout of the storm.
