2m evacuated as Cyclone Yaas slams India

NEW DELHI • India evacuated over two million people as a powerful storm hit the east coast yesterday, causing extensive damage at a time when the nation is battling the world's worst Covid-19 outbreak.

Cyclone Yaas destroyed more than 300,000 houses in West Bengal and affected 10 million people, the state's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters. River embankments have been breached, damaging crops and fisheries and livestock farms, she said.

The state has evacuated about 1.5 million people to safer areas. Neighbouring Odisha has moved more than 500,000 people to relief centres where the authorities have asked people to maintain social distancing to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Odisha officials said they had suspended testing, vaccination and a door-to-door health survey in the three districts in the storm's path.

Police said they had rescued 10 people after their boat capsized near shore in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district on Tuesday. Naval base Chilka is monitoring ships in the area and is ready for rescue operations, the Indian Navy said.

News agencies reported that several boats, shops and houses were damaged in the state and scores of trees were uprooted.

The second severe storm to batter India in 10 days is posing several challenges to already-stressed authorities in the country, which is battling a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The infections have strained India's health system and overwhelmed crematoriums and hospitals. They have also spread to rural areas, where about 70 per cent of the nation's 1.3 billion people live.

Federal Home Minister Amit Shah has asked the state governments to ensure adequate power backup for hospitals, laboratories, cold stores for vaccines and other medical facilities.

The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone, which made landfall yesterday morning, has weakened. The wind speed surged as high as 155kmh in some areas, while sea levels of more than 2m above regular tides inundated low-lying areas, it said in a statement.

India regularly witnesses severe storms. A super cyclone in Odisha in 1999 killed about 10,000 people. Yaas follows a category 3 cyclone that reached the opposite coast last week - the worst in over two decades in the western state of Gujarat - killing dozens after a barge sank in the sea.

The eastern region was also hit by a severe cyclone in May last year, while another one in 2019 prompted the authorities to evacuate millions of people.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, river transport has been suspended. As a precautionary measure, the country has readied 15,000 storm shelters that could accommodate as many as 2.5 million people.

Number of houses in West Bengal destroyed by Cyclone Yaas.

Number of West Bengal people affected.

The storm has impacted several flights in the affected states in India, with airports in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Durgapur shut yesterday. Ports, refineries and plants were on alert.

More than 20 relief columns of the Indian Army have been deployed and another nine are on standby. Air force transport aircraft have flown in over 200 personnel and equipment for the National Disaster Response Force.

Tata Power has mobilised nearly 10,000 people, including engineers and contract workers, to take up restoration work in the affected region, said Mr Praveer Sinha, chief executive officer of the company, which manages power distribution operations in Odisha.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS