The cyclone “Amphan” hit land in the border region between India and Bangladesh and has left a trail of devastation behind. Strong winds and torrential rains devastated coastal villages and towns, destroyed power lines, uprooted trees and flooded houses. At least nine people were killed, the authorities said on Wednesday.
“Amphan” is considered one of the heaviest cyclones in the region for decades. In Bangladesh, the authorities reported six deaths, including a five-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man killed by falling trees. The Indian authorities reported three deaths to the AFP news agency. The people were also killed by trees. Indian media reported two more deaths that have yet to be officially confirmed by the authorities.
“The situation is more worrying than the coronavirus pandemic. We don’t know how to deal with it,” said West Bengal Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee. “Almost everything has been destroyed in the coastal villages of the state.” At wind speeds of up to 113 kilometers per hour, the cyclone hit Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, where around 14.7 million people live.
Heavy rains fell over the city, causing floods. The violent wind uprooted trees, the telecommunications in the storm area was disrupted. Electricity was cut in parts of the city because the utilities had turned it off as a precaution. “I have never seen anything like this in my whole life,” Sriparna Bose, a university lecturer, described the storm scenes.
According to media reports, a storm surge rolled several kilometers inland. According to a local police officer, large parts of the coastal arable land were flooded in southwestern Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi authorities were also concerned about the devastation in the Sundarbans mangrove forests, which extend across both countries in the affected region and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The houses “look like they have been hit by a bulldozer,” said Babul Mondal, a villager who lives on the Indian side of the forest. “Everything is destroyed.”
India and Bangladesh had been preparing for the storm under high pressure in the past few days. According to the authorities, more than 300,000 people from coastal villages were brought to safety in the East Indian state of West Bengal alone. More than 20,000 police officers, rescue workers and volunteers were involved in the evacuations by boat and bus, the Banerjee head of state said.
In total, more than three million people from coastal areas were brought to safety. In Bangladesh, 2.2 million people had to leave their homes. The evacuations were made more difficult by the corona pandemic – a lot of emergency shelters were needed to keep the distance rules. The number of corona infections has recently risen sharply in both countries.
“We fear the cyclone, but we also fear the corona virus,” said Sulata Munda, a Bangladeshi villager, AFP. The mother of four and other villagers had decided not to go to the emergency shelters for fear of contracting the virus.
In Bangladesh, the authorities fear that “Amphan” will be the worst cyclone since “Sidr” in 2007 – around 3,500 people died at the time. A severe storm surge is being warned in both Bangladesh and India. Fears of waves and floods far inland were feared.
Cyclones hit Bangladesh and the east of India on a regular basis. In 1999, almost 10,000 people died from a cyclone in Odisha. In 1991, nearly 140,000 people in Bangladesh were killed by cyclone-driven storms and floods.
Source: Apa / dpa
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