Mamata Banerjee will remain in office overnight as Bengal Braces For Cyclone Yaas

"We have learnt our lessons from (Cyclone) Amphan," Mamata Banerjee said today

The much loved West Bengal Chief Minster is creating a role-model moment which will be hard to follow for most administrators, especially political chiefs. She has announced that she will spend the entire night at the State Secretariat monitoring rescue and relief operations across her state in the wake of the imminent landfall of Cyclone Yaas.

"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," she said.

Cyclone Yaas is supposed to make landfall on the Odisha coast near Bhamra Port tomorrow (26th May) morning around 5:30 AM, with wind speeds of upto 185 kilometers/hour.

Mamata also said that she will be monitoring the efforts put in by 54,000 officers and relief workers, 2 lakh police and Home Guard personnel, along with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, who are going to be deployed to tackle the fallout of the storm, which may severely impact several districts of the state.

Yaas which is expected to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm starting tomorrow morning, with wind speeds in bracket of 155 km/hour to 185 km/hour, along and off Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts in Odisha and East Midnapore district of West Bengal, is expected to be quite devastating for the state.

As per forecasts from weather department – there are warning that low-lying areas may get flooded. Alos, Cyclone Yaas is expected to cause a storm surge of 2-4 metres along the coastline of Purba Medinipur and 1-2 metres in South 24 Parganas. She said the Army will be deployed wherever necessary.

In Bengal apart from East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas districts may be severely hit with speeds of 90 km/hour to 120 km/per hour. Several other cities, like Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly, may also witness very high wind speeds.

There are also warnings that the rapid winds can destroy houses, bend or uproot electric poles and disrupt railway services in coastal and adjoining interior districts of Bengal.

Apart from the high winds, most districts in Bengal are forecasted to experience moderate to high rainfall.

Mamata Banerjee, the newly reinstated 3rd time Chief Minister of West Bengal, had yesterday said the forecast about the impact of Cyclone Yaas could be worse than the debilitating Cyclone Amphan, which had left a trail of destruction in the state last year.

"We have learnt our lessons from (Cyclone) Amphan," she remarked today.