Multiple videos of “huge water spouts twirling high up into the sky” over water bodies as a storm hit parts of West Bengal on Tuesday have gone viral.
These videos shared across Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, captured the “spinning movement of wind mostly over the waterbodies as dark clouds loomed over” in Hooghly, Bandel, Chinsurah, and Halisahar areas of Bengal, a report in The Indian Express said.
West Bengal chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the storm as a “tornado”, saying that it hit Hooghly and North 24 Parganas on Tuesday. The storm killed at least two people and damaged nearly 80 houses in West Bengal’s Hooghly and North 24 Parganas districts, reports said.
Here are some other videos, which captured the storm:
The videos were mostly shot on Tuesday, 25 May, when Yaas was in the category of a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’. However, it has now turned into a ‘severe cyclonic storm’ and was centered at North coastal Odisha at 12.30 pm today.
A high alert has been issued in the state of Jharkhand as well due to the cyclone.
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In order to avoid its impact, as many as 11.5 lakh people have been shifted from coastal areaas across West Bengal while 5.8 lakh people had to move from Odisha’s low-lying regions.
The review meetings were held on Tuesday by both Chief Minsiter of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee and Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik. On Wednesday, the Bengal chief minister announced that she will be conducting an aerial survey of the regions affected by the cyclone.