Amphan Cyclone Nears West Bengal, Odisha | Orange Warning Issued

West Bengal and Odisha have begun to brace themselves for the super cyclonic storm, Amphan, as it moved closer to the coastline of the two states.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has put out an orange alert for both states.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are on the ground ready for rescue and relief operations. The  has deployed 37 teams in the coastal areas of both states.

With the extremely severe cyclonic storm now turning into a super cyclonic storm and hurtling down towards the coastal states of India on the Bay of Bengal, Odisha and West Bengal state governments are preparing themselves for mass evacuations of citizens from villages and towns along the coastline. This is said to be the second super cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal in over 20 years.

Amphan is expected to make landfall sometime on Wednesday as per the forecast of IMD. The super cyclonic storm is likely to move across north-west Bay of Bengal and cross West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts, close to Sundarbans, sometime later in the day on Tuesday.

IMD has forecast extensive damage in the regions of Hooghly, Kolkata, Howrah, South and North 24 Paraganas and East Midnapore districts of West Bengal.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already directed officials to be prepared to evacuate lakhs of people in coastal villages of the state. Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore are likely to be impacted and also experience heavy rainfall along with high velocity winds on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday reviewed the situation arising out of cyclone in the states of West Bengal and Odisha along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other top government officials.