Floods, rain hit India, Bangladesh in wake of cyclone; 22 dead
NEW
DELHI (AP) — A powerful cyclone ripped through densely populated
coastal India and Bangladesh, blowing off roofs and whipping up waves
that swallowed embankments and bridges and left entire villages without
access to fresh water, electricity and communications. At least 22
people were reported killed Thursday.
The cyclone weakened after
slamming ashore Wednesday evening amid massive evacuations. Officials
warn that relief and repair work will be made harder by the coronavirus
pandemic, which has already sapped the health care system.
In
low-lying Bangladesh, up to eight people have died while 12 deaths were
reported in West Bengal state in India. Officials said two people died
in India’s Odisha state in the Bay of Bengal. Most of the deaths were
due to the collapse of walls, drowning and falling trees in both
countries.
“We have never seen or heard anything like it. Windows
rattled, the house shook, outside trees caught fire while, others
collapsed. We thought we would die,” Javed Khan, a taxi driver in
Kolkata, told The Associated Press via WhatsApp.
Cyclone Amphan,
the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane, was packing sustained winds of
up to 170 kilometers (105 miles) per hour with maximum gusts of 190 kph
(118 mph) when it crashed ashore.
Although it lost power as it
moved towards Bangladesh, the densely populated regions of South Bengal
bore the brunt of the onslaught with storm surges pushing seawater 25
kilometers (15 miles) inland and flooding cities including Kolkata.
The
roof of a school building in Howrah, a suburb of Kolkata, flew off in
the wind. Numerous coconut trees were struck by lightning and rising
rivers overflew their banks.
Heavy rainfall was forecast for many
parts of the state in the coming week. The cyclone will disrupt local
wind circulation and also trigger heat waves in parts of the country,
said India’s meteorological chief, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra.
West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Wednesday night the damage
was difficult to assess immediately. She said that entire islands had
been cut off from the mainland, including the communities living along
the Sunderbans, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world.
The
forests dissipate the energy of the storm and absorb some of the
impact, said K.J Ramesh, India’s former meteorological chief.
In
the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta,
many centuries-old buildings were badly damaged, said Banerjee.
“We are facing three crises: the coronavirus, the thousands of migrants who are returning home and now the cyclone,” she said.
In Bangladesh, at least a million people were without electricity, according to the Ministry of Power.
Hundreds of villages were submerged by a tidal surge across the vast coastal region, disaster-response authorities said. About a dozen flood protection embankments have been breached, it said.
Alam reported from Dhaka. Associated Press writer Chonchui Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this report.