KOLKATA/DHAKA • The most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India and Bangladesh in over a decade killed at least 82 people, officials said yesterday, as rescue teams scoured devastated coastal villages, hampered by torn-down power lines and widespread flooding.
Mass evacuations by the authorities before Cyclone Amphan made landfall undoubtedly saved many lives, but the full extent of the casualties and damage to property would be known only once communications were restored, officials said.
In the Indian state of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said yesterday that at least 72 people had died - most of them either electrocuted or killed by trees uprooted by winds that gusted up to 185kmh. In neighbouring Bangladesh, the initial toll was put at 10.
Mr Azgar Ali, 49, a resident of Satkhira district on the Bangladesh coast, told Reuters: "I have never seen such a cyclone in my life. It seemed like the end of the world. All I could do was to pray... Almighty Allah saved us."
Mr Mohammad Asaduzzaman, a senior police official in the area, said the storm tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines and left many villages inundated.
When the cyclone barrelled in from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, the storm surge of around 5m resulted in flooding across low-lying coastal areas. Reuters Television footage shot in West Bengal showed upturned boats on the shore, people wading through knee-deep water and buses that crashed into each other.
Other images showed villagers trying to lift fallen electricity poles, fishermen hauling their boats out of a choppy sea, and uprooted trees strewn across the countryside.
Designated a super cyclone, Amphan has weakened since making landfall and is now moving inland through Bangladesh.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: "Have been seeing visuals from West Bengal on the devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan. In this challenging hour, the entire nation stands in solidarity with West Bengal."
Concern was growing over flooding in the Sundarbans, an ecologically fragile region straddling the India-Bangladesh border, known for its thick mangrove forests and tiger reserve.
Bangladeshi forest official Belayet Hossain said: "The tidal surge submerged some parts of the forest. We have seen trees uprooted, the tin roofs of the guard towers blown off."
Over on the Indian side of the Sundarbans, a village official said embankments surrounding a low-lying island, where some 5,000 people live, had been washed away, and he had been unable to contact the authorities for help.
The authorities in both countries managed to evacuate more than three million people, moving them to storm shelters before Amphan struck. But the evacuation effort was focused on communities that lay directly in the cyclone's path, leaving villages on the flanks still vulnerable.
The airport in Kolkata, West Bengal's state capital, lay under water and several neighbourhoods in the city of 14 million people have had no electricity since the storm struck, according to residents.
The cyclone came at a time when the two countries are battling the coronavirus pandemic. Some evacuees were initially reluctant to leave their homes for fear of possible infection in packed storm shelters.
REUTERS
