Vessel overloaded with people capsizes near Bangladesh’s Mongla, as Remal hurtles towards coast

Screengrab from Windy.com

A vessel overloaded with people has capsized in the sea near the port of Mongla in Bangladesh’s Khulna division, even as Cyclone Remal is to strike the country along with adjoining West Bengal at midnight on May 26, 2024.

Zulfikar Ali, former Mayor of Mongla, confirmed the news to this reporter. He added the there was no news of casualties at the moment.

“We are already having dark clouds, rain and strong wind in Mongla. According to the prediction here, the landfall will be close to Mongla and Payra ports which are about 150 kilometres (km) apart,” said Ali.

He informed that the number of ships in Mongla port now — recently upgraded as a high-active commercial centre — is fairly less in anticipation of the cyclone hitting the area.

Destination Mongla

Information shared by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) at 9.30 am on May 26, has confirmed that Cyclone Remal is set to make landfall near Mongla in Bangladesh around midnight the same day, around 60 km from the Indian section of the Sundarbans.

“The Cyclonic Storm “Remal” (pronounced as “Re-Mal”) over North Bay of Bengal moved nearly northwards, with a speed of 06 kmph during past 06 hours, intensified into a Severe Cyclonic Storm and lay centered at 0530 hrs IST of today, the 26th May, 2024 over North Bay of Bengal … about 290 km south southwest of Khepupara (Bangladesh), 330 km south of Mongla (Bangladesh), 270 km south-southeast of Sagar Islands (West Bengal), 390 km south-southeast of Digha (West Bengal) and 310 km south-southeast of Canning (West Bengal),” read the IMD latest release.

“It is very likely to continue to move nearly northwards, intensify further and cross Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal coasts … close to southwest of Mongla (Bangladesh) by midnight of today, the 26th May 2024 as a Severe Cyclonic Storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 kmph gusting to 135 kmph,” confirmed the release.

The cyclone may have the highest wind speed of 135 km at landfall, though the average speed is expected to be in the range of 110-120 kmph.

It is set to bring heavy to very heavy rain in almost the entire south and central parts of West Bengal. A red warning is being issued for Kolkata and adjoining districts like South 24 Parganas, North 24 parganas, Hooghly and Howrah.

“It is a non-classical severe cyclonic storm with monsoon circulation getting added up to the cyclonic system to ensure a large diameter, about 350 km, of Remal. Hence, it is set to impact a wide area,” explained a senior expert of IMD’s cyclone division on May 26 morning.

The IMD prediction has pointed out that almost the whole of Gangetic West Bengal is likely to receive heavy to very heavy rain on May 26 and 27.

The expert further stated that the wind speed will be stronger on the Bangladesh side, compared to the Indian Sundarbans. But the latter will sustain significant damage as the cyclonic system will partially overlap with the high tide, that will be set into motion from around 7 pm and reach a peak around 11 pm.

“However, the Indian Sundarbans is likely to be less impacted as the direction of wind will be to its advantage,” added the expert.

West Bengal on tenterhooks

IMD’s West Bengal-related prediction points “light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places is likely over coastal districts of West Bengal and eastern districts of Gangetic West Bengal adjacent to Bangladesh on 26th & 27th with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (≥ 20 cm) over these districts on 26th May”.

It further says that “the peak rainfall activity is likely during noon of 26th to noon of 27th May”.

As for wind warning, IMD says that “gale wind speed reaching 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph is likely to prevail over central Bay of Bengal till noon and decrease becoming squally wind speed reaching 50- 60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph till morning of 27th May”.

“Squally wind speed reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph is likely to commence over Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata and East Medinipur districts from evening of 26th May. It will increase gradually becoming Gale wind speed reaching 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph over these districts during night of 26th May,” added the report.

The report added that “storm surge of about 1 meter height above astronomical tide is likely to inundate low lying areas of coastal West Bengal and 3-4 m above astronomical tide likely to inundate low lying areas of coastal Bangladesh around the time of landfall”.

Kolkata under scare

IMD has issued a red warning of heavy to very heavy rain in Kolkata.

The cyclone is set to make landfall about 125 km away from Kolkata. However, the city is likely to receive copious amounts of rain. This may lead to inundation and flooding of low-lying areas.

The IMD release — under the heading ‘red warning’ — said:

Heavy (7-11cm) to very heavy rain (12-20 cm) at a few places over North and South Parganas, East Midnapore, Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly districts with extremely heavy rain more than 20 cm) at one or two places is very likely over North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts.

Along with rain, the city may receive cyclonic circulation.

“We have issued a red warning for Kolkata. The cyclonic weather and rain may start around noon and continue throughout the day and part of next day. But strong surface winds of 70 to 80 km per hour are likely towards evening with a gust of about 90 km per hour,” said an expert from IMD Alipore.

“There will be minimum water logging even in the case of 40 mm rain per hour as we now have the capacity of draining out 38 mm rain per hour with our 408 pumps operating in 76 stations. However, there may be water logging if the lock gates cannot be opened due to the high tide factor,” claimed Tarak Singh, mayor-in-council, who is in-charge of drainage at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

The city electricity agency has been asked to be present in all parts of the city in anticipation of the cyclone and the Kolkata airport will remain closed between noon on May 26 and May 27 morning.

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