20.05.2020 14:34
(Act. 20.05.2020 14:34)
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“Amphan” has been one of the most violent storms in recent decades
© APA (AFP)
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A strong cyclone has hit the mainland in India and Bangladesh with a lot of wind and rain. It takes about four hours until the cyclone “Amphan” is completely on land, said the Indian meteorological service on Wednesday afternoon. It was one of the worst storms in the region in the past 20 years. The corona virus made necessary evacuations even more difficult than usual.
Previously, more than three million people were taken to shelters as a precaution, most of them in Bangladesh. Authorities of the two countries assume that, among other things, densely populated cities such as Kolkata with its 15 million inhabitants, coastal regions with many poorly built huts and the Rohingya refugee camp with more than one million inhabitants will be affected.
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Corona makes the great evacuation even more difficult than usual. To ensure distance, authorities in both countries said they provided more emergency shelters than usual in such storms. Empty schools are currently being used. In some cases, masks or disinfectants were distributed in the accommodations.
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“Usually, in front of such a mega-cyclone, hundreds of people in buses and trucks are evacuated together into large public buildings such as schools or gyms,” said Felix Neuhaus, aid coordinator at AWO International. “However, if the distance rules are adhered to, it can hardly be implemented.” Before the arrival of the cyclone, the aid organization Save the Children said that people would not primarily think of social distancing when it came to getting to safety.
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Cyclones occur again and again in the Gulf of Bengal. Nearly 10,000 people died in a large cyclone in 1999. Experts assume that the wind strength has tended to increase in recent years, partly due to climate change. However, the number of victims has generally been smaller in recent years, as there are now more good emergency shelters and evacuation plans.
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