Kolkata, May 27 (UNI) Two women, among six people died, in the cyclonic storm in West Bengal after Remal with a wind speed of nearly 150 km per hour left a trail of damages in neighbouring districts, uprooting trees and electric poles and disrupting power services as continuous rains waterlogged vast areas of this metropolis, which largely affected life, official sources said.
Among the dead, four of them died of electrocution, one each at Panihati, Maheshtala (woman), two at Memari, sources said.
One person died after portion of concrete from a cornice of an old house fell on him at Entally in central Kolkata and a woman at Mousumi Island in South 24 Parganas died after a tree fell on her following storm.
Father and son died at Memari in Purba Bardhaman when they were electrocuted with a live wire they came in contact with while cleaning fallen banana trees in their courtyard.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has asked the state chief secretary to report to her the extent of damages and ordered immediate relief operation in the affected areas.
Mamata will undertake an aerial survey of the ravaged areas on Tuesday to take stock of the situation.
The Sundarbans area was the worst affected as many mud houses were washed away and electric poles uprooted resulting in darkness and scarcity of drinking waters.
The swelling rivers and salt waters also damaged the cultivated lands in South 24 Parganas.
An updated IMD bulletin said, the " Cyclonic Storm “Remal” over Coastal Bangladesh and adjoining Coastal West Bengal moved nearly northwards, with a speed of 08 kmph during past 06 hours and lay centered at 1130 hrs IST of today, the 27th May, 2024 over Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal, near latitude 23.0°N and longitude 89.2°E about 65 km northwest of Mongla (Bangladesh), 100 km north-northeast of Canning (West Bengal), 110 km northeast of Kolkata (West Bengal), 150 km northwest of Khepupara (Bangladesh) and 150 km southwest of Dhaka (Bangladesh).
The system is likely to move north-northeast awards, and gradually weaken further into Deep Depression by evening of today, the 27th May 2024."
However, local weather office at Alipore predicted rains in the neighbouring coastal districts South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly Purba and Pachim Medinipur, Murshidabad, Nadia in the next 24 hours with wind speed of about 40 kmph.
The weather office also gave an orange alert for the entire north Bengal districts tomorrow.
" Many areas of the city have been hard-hit by Cyclone Remal. Our Disaster Management Group personnel and personnel of different police stations have been making efforts all night to remove numerous trees uprooted in the storm to keep traffic moving," a Kolkata Police twitter said.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim, who took over the KMC control room during the night, said efforts were on to dewatering by using water pumps at several places. He said efforts were on to replant those threes, which were not totally uprooted, and added the green Rabindra Sarobor would be closed for the public to replant trees in south Kolkata.
"It is unfortunate that the people are not aware of the bad effect of using plastic as the water logging at Park Street owing to jamming of the manholes of those things, " he said.
He said a record 264 mm rainfall was measured in Ballygunge Circular Road." We need five hours to dewater the waterlogged streets once the rain stops and ends the current high tide, " the Mayor said.
Reports said waterlogged was seen from north to south of the city where traffic was also affected by the falling trees.
Full stretch Metro Railway services resumed at 1205 hours after dewatering at a place between Esplanade and Park Street underground station.
"Flight operations resumed at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata at 0859 hours, after it was closed for flight operation yesterday in view of the REMAL, " Kolkata Airport said.
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