A tornado struck the Hooghly district of West Bengal on Saturday, causing destruction to houses and trees. Reports from the area indicate that multiple homes and large trees were brought down by the storm.
Emergency services, including police, disaster response teams, and fire services, were quickly deployed to the scene. The tornado hit the area of Tarkeshwar around 6 PM. Meanwhile, incessant rain lashed Kolkata and its neighbouring districts on Saturday as a low-pressure area turned into a deep depression.
According to the police, ankle-deep water was reported from parts of central and south Kolkata, but traffic movement was not disrupted.
Waterlogging was also reported from inside the Kolkata airport, but flight services were not affected. "Both the runway and all taxiways are fully operational. However, a few parking stands are affected by waterlogging for which additional pumps have been deployed to drain the water from the operational area," an official told news agency PTI.
While Dumdum recorded 100 mm rainfall since Friday, 81.1 mm rainfall was recorded in Salt Lake and 31.9 mm at Alipore area in northern and southern parts of the city respectively.
"The low pressure over Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal turned into a deep depression. It is gradually shifting towards Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. This, accompanied by an active monsoon trough over the southern districts of West Bengal, resulted in the rains," he said.
The southern districts of Howrah, Paschim and Bardhaman, Birbhum, Hooghly, Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganas districts will continue to experience showers over the next 12 hours, he said. The Met Department also warned of thunderstorms, accompanied by lightning.
Meanwhile, flights operations to and from the Kazi Nazrul Islam (KNI) airport at Andal in Paschim Bardhaman district continued to be suspended for the second consecutive day on Saturday as the airport is yet to be ready for operations. The operations at the airport were shut down on Friday due to water logging in and around its premises.
“Due to continuous heavy rains in Durgapur, we've had to cancel all flights scheduled for today. The prevailing rain has caused some operational challenges and waterlogging in various parts of the city, IndiGo airlines, which is the only company to operate in and out of the airport,” tweeted on X on Saturday.
Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), the developer of the airport, had said due to unprecedented rainfall recorded in and around the Durgapur-Asansol area since Thursday, both KNI airport and the surrounding areas have experienced significant water logging.
(With PTI Inputs)
