Rains, strong winds, power cuts across Tripura, Northeast as cyclone Sitrang approaches

The Tripura government has announced the closure of schools till Tuesday and has cancelled leaves of government employees

Rain, strong winds, and power cuts affected normal life in Tripura and some other parts of the Northeast as the cyclone Sitrang intensified and moved towards neighbouring Bangladesh on Monday.

A bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that at 2.30 pm on Monday, the cyclone Sitrang was 300 km South Southeast of Sagar island in Bengal and was likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm and cross the Bangladesh coast between Tinkona Island and Sandwip close to Barisal around early hours of Tuesday.

"Under its influence fairly widespread/widespread rainfall accompanied with thunderstorm/lightning/heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places is very likely to occur over the Northeastern states during October 24 to 26," the IMD bulletin said.

Parts of Tripura, a state sharing a border with Bangladesh, witnessed heavy rains accompanied by strong cold winds from Monday morning. This resulted in power cuts in parts of the state. In light of the situation, the Tripura government announced closure of schools till Tuesday and even cancelled leaves of government employees in order to keep emergency services ready in the event of a disaster.

Alerts were also sounded in Meghalaya, parts of South Assam, and parts of Mizoram while a general alert was issued in Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. Meghalaya and Assam also witnessed rain, winds and drops in temperature, marring Diwali celebrations. Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, and Mizoram all share a border with Bangladesh.

The IMD bulletin has projected that light to moderate rainfall is likely at most places in Assam and Meghalaya with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall on Tuesday. Extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Meghalaya is also likely, it further said. Isolated heavy rainfall in some places in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura has also been predicted for Wednesday.

It also warned about squally wind speeds reaching between 45 to 60 kilometres per hour in most parts of the Northeast on Tuesday.