The very severe cyclonic storm Yaas started battering northern coastline of Odisha with powerful winds and rains on Wednesday morning as it made landfall at Bahanaga block at around 9 am with sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting upto 155 kmph.

Director of regional meterological centre HR Biswas said the landfall process will continue for next 3-4 hours with sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting upto 155 kmph along and off Bhadrak and Balasore districts.

Similarly, wind speed likely to remain 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph along and off Kendrapara district. It will decrease gradually after landfall becoming 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph by evening. After landfall the system is very likely to move northwestwards across interior districts of Odisha and weaken gradually.

Under the impact of the cyclone, very heavy rains were reported from Chandbali in Bhadrak and Paradip in Jagatsinghpur districts. In the last 24 hours, Chandbali reported 27.3 cm of rainfall followed by 19.7 cm at Paradip. Due to tidal surge, sea water entered villages in Talsara region of Jaleswar block of Balasore district.

The first report of cyclone-related casualty came from Keonjhar district when an elderly man was crushed to death after coming under a tree toppled by strong winds at Panchapalli village under Anandapur block. In Balasore town, a 20-year-old youth was seriously injured after a tree fell on him at Railway Colony. In Chandipur coast, sea water entered into a hotel resort.

In West Benga also, services at Kolkata airport was suspended and heavy rainfall was reported from different parts of the state. No loss of life was reported till Monday noon.