DIGHA/BHUBANESWAR, INDIA (AFP, REUTERS) - A powerful cyclone destroyed tens of thousands of mud houses in eastern India on Wednesday (May 26), forcing the closure of the busiest regional airport in Kolkata, as it brought storm surges to coastal areas, the second such event within a week.
Cyclone Yaas was packing gusts of up to 140kph as it hit land, authorities said, days after Tauktae tore up the western coast, triggering mass evacuations and piling pressure on authorities battling a deadly second wave of the coronavirus.
Authorities said more than a million people had been moved out of the storm's path, while television broadcast images of rough seas, strong winds and rains lashing the state of Odisha, with shops and homes boarded up.
By noon, the "very severe cyclone" would cross Odisha and its neighbour, West Bengal, weather officials said.
West Bengal's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, told reporters that about 20,000 mud houses and temporary shelters had been damaged in the state.
"I have not seen anything like this before," said another state minister, Bankim Hazra, after seawater gushed into the low-lying areas of Sagar island in the Bay of Bengal and the tourist town of Digha, where a police station was flooded.
"Successive high tides battered the coastline," he added. "It is inundation all around and villages are cut off."
The state's Kolkata airport was closed to flights until Wednesday evening.
Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are common at this time of year, and often roar ashore, bringing death and destruction to the coastal areas of both India and neighbouring Bangladesh.
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.
The devastating wave of virus infections complicated storm preparations. Odisha officials said they had suspended testing, vaccination and a door-to-door health survey in the three districts in the storm's path.
"We have been experiencing heavy rainfall and strong winds since last night," said Mr Bibhu Prasad Panda, a resident of Balasore district in the storm's path. "Several trees have been uprooted. The cyclone has also led to snapping of overhead electricity cables."
A tornado that preceded the storm left two dead electrocuted as it tore through West Bengal's Hooghly district, authorities said.
"Every life is precious," said Odisha's chief minister Naveen Patnaik as he appealed for people not to "panic" and to move away from the coast. A record 4,800 disaster workers had been positioned in the two states, equipped with tree and wire cutters, emergency communications, inflatable boats and medical aid, the National Disaster Response Force said.
'Terrible blow'
Both states are struggling with the coronavirus wave that has left more than 120,000 dead across India in the past six weeks.
While masks have been distributed in emergency shelters and relief workers are trying to impose social distancing, many officials fear the new cyclone will only speed up the spread of the virus.
"This cyclone spells double trouble for millions of people in India as there is no respite from Covid-19," said Mr Udaya Regmi, South Asia head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The storm "is a terrible blow for many people in coastal districts whose families have been struck down by Covid-19 infections and deaths," West Bengal state minister Bankim Chandra Hazra said.
Mr Hazra added that it would be "a big challenge" to maintain social distancing in the emergency shelters. Some vaccination centres in threatened districts as well as Kolkata suspended operations because of the storm and a special operation had been launched to ensure the supply of oxygen and medicines to hospitals, officials said.
Officials in neighbouring Bangladesh, a regular target of cyclones, said they expected the low-lying delta nation to be spared this time.
Some of the deadliest storms in history have formed in the Bay of Bengal, including one in 1970 that killed half a million people in what is modern-day Bangladesh.
Odisha's worst-ever cyclone, in 1999, killed 10,000 people. Last year Cyclone Amphan, the worst since 1999, caused widespread devastation but timely evacuations meant fatalities were fewer than 150.
