The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a weather forecast whereby thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds (wind speed reaching 30-40 kmph) and lightning and thundersquall (wind speed reaching 50-60 kmph) accompanied with lightning is likely to occur at isolated places over Assam and Meghalaya from April 19 to 22.
Also read: Cyclonic storm hits over 10,000 households in Meghalaya’s 700 villages
Earlier on Thursday, Meghalaya Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Kyrmen Shylla convened a high level meeting to take stock of the damages caused by cyclonic storm in various parts of the State on Wednesday.
Cyclonic storm has hit almost all parts of the State from April 14 to 17, besides heavy rain.
The meeting was attended by high level officials of all the districts in the State.
Also read: Cyclonic storm results in 500 MW power supply cut in Assam
In the meeting, additional chief secretary, in-charge Revenue & Disaster Management Department gave an initial report on the damages caused to the household properties, public and private assets.
The Minister took stock of the situation in each district through a video conferencing with the concerned deputy commissioners.
As per initial reports received from all the districts, the total number of affected villages is 700 and 10,554 households. About 100 numbers of school buildings and few community halls have also been damaged.
Also read: Cyclonic storm leaves trail of destruction across Assam, Northeast
Almost all the districts have been affected but major damages were reported from Garo Hills Division and few districts from Khasi and Jaiñtia Hills which include West Khasi Hills, East Jaiñtia, West Jaiñtia Hills.
The power supply in some parts of the districts like West Garo Hills, South West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi district has been disrupted which has been restored partially.
The minister asked all the deputy commissioners to be on alert and gear up all field level officers to respond effectively and to put in maximum effort to cover all the affected families especially in the far flung areas.
The chief secretary also asked all the deputy commissioners to submit detailed assessment reports at the earliest and instructed them to have contingency plans to meet exigencies and mitigate the grievances of the affected people, reports added.