Bhuvneshwar: Several districts in Odisha were on Tuesday placed on high alert as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued warnings for extremely heavy rains ahead of Cyclone YAAS’ landfall. A red alert was issued for Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, and Balasore districts for Tuesday and Wednesday. “We have issued the highest danger warning for Dhamra and Paradip ports,” IMD Bhubaneswar said.
An orange alert for Tuesday for areas of Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Cuttack, Khurda, and Puri were flagged as IMD forecasted heavy to very heavy rainfall.
As part of the preparation, the Navy has already deployed:
One Flood Relief Team- on standby at Diamond Harbour, for redeployment if needed on short notice. Two Navy Diving Teams.
One Diving and two Flood Relief Teams each have been positioned at Digha and Frazerganj on 23 May and 24 May respectively.
Five Flood Relief Teams, comprising specialized Navy personnel with associated equipment and inflatable boats, have been deployed to West Bengal.
As an aftereffect of the Cyclone- for Casualty evacuation, aerial survey, and airdrop of relief material, Naval Helicopters from onboard the IN Ships, Medium-Range Maritime Patrol aircraft at Visakhapatnam as well as Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft at Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu) are on standby based on requests from the State Government.
Cyclone YAAS is expected to be more severe than Amphan that scrambled the state killing 100 individuals due to heavy rainfall and strong winds. The CM assures that the preparations of the administration are in full swing and are preparing to face the natural calamity.