Millions of people were evacuated this Tuesday before the arrival in India and Bangladesh of a powerful cyclone, through procedures complicated by the strict containment measures imposed in the two countries to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
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In Bangladesh, 2.2 million citizens must be away from home by government order, fearing that Cyclone Amphan is more devastating than Sidr in 2007, which caused 3,500 deaths, many of them due to the rise of the waters in territories that are above sea level.
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Enamur Rahman, Minister of Disasters, assured that shelters have doubled to try to maintain social distancing measures and that all people should wear protective masks.
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“We are preparing separate and isolated rooms in the shelters for patients who may be contaminated,” he told AFP.
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However, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) regretted that the inhabitants of the coastal areas face the “impossible dilemma” to face the cyclone staying at home or risking being contaminated in a shelter.
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This Tuesday Amphon was still several hundred kilometers above the Bay of Bengal, with sustained winds of 146 mph, and gusts of up to 158 mph. The cyclone is expected to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon.
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Millions of people are evacuating as Tropical Cyclone #Amphan approaches eastern #India and #Bangladesh. This image shows the storm at 16:15 Universal Time (9:45 p.m. India Standard Time) on May 19. https://t.co/MB8hZwx12M pic.twitter.com/8kwHT2OxUT
– NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) May 19, 2020
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In India, the Director General of the Office of meteorology Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told the local press that Amphon may become the most powerful cyclone since 1999, when a super cyclone killed 10,000 people.
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