Cyclone Amphan: Stay home from Wednesday afternoon, says Mamata Banerjee to people in Bengal’s coastal areas

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday appealed to people living in the coastal areas of West Bengal to stay home from Wednesday afternoon till Thursday as cyclone Amphan may have a severe effect in these areas.

She explained that the meterological department has forcast said that there will be heavy rain from Tuesday night till Thursday afternoon along the coast as well as in several parts of Kolkata, Howrah, East and West Midnapore districts. The cyclone will hit the mainland near Sagar island on Wednesday at around 2 pm and will continue till midnight before crossing over to Bangladesh.

She said, “The head of the cyclone will hit first. Followed by the eye and the tail. So I am requesting people not to step out of their homes.” She added that fishermen have also been asked not to venture out into the seas. Banerjee will herself monitor the situation from the state administrative headquarters, Nabanna tomorrow through the day and night.

“Till now, 2 lakh people from from South 24 Parganas, 50,000 from North 24 Parganas, 40,000 from East Midnapore and 10,000 from West Midnapore have been evacuated to flood and cyclone relief shelters,” she said. At the time of Bulbul this number was 1,80,000.

She said that since that Covid-19 pandemic continues to be an ongoing crisis, proper social distancing measure have been implemented at these relief centres along with proper sanitation, masks, toilet facilities, baby food for children and proper health screening.

She said, “South 24 Parganas will be most affected.”

The list includes areas like Sagar Island, Mousumi Island, Frasergunj, Namkhana, Kakdwip and parts of Basanti and Canning. In Midnapore, areas like Ramnagar, Khejuri Sutahata will also be affected.

She said that NDRF teams along with SDRF teams have been kept ready to tackle the situation. Fifteen teams of SDRF have been kept ready. Also Electricity, Health and PHE teams have been kept ready to tackle any untoward incident.

She has also requested the railways not to send any train to the state on Wednesday since the migrant workers coming back in the trains might face trouble in the midst of the storm.