Cyclone leaves villagers in India, Bangladesh marooned by floods

BHUBANESHWAR/DIGHA, India • Hundreds of thousands of villagers along the low-lying coast of eastern India and Bangladesh were marooned by flood waters yesterday in the aftermath of a powerful cyclone that has killed at least nine people, including four children, officials said.

Barely a week after Cyclone Tauktae claimed at least 155 lives in western India, Cyclone Yaas ripped through the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Wednesday, packing gusts of up to 140 kmh and whipping up tidal surges the size of double-decker buses in neighbouring West Bengal state and Bangladesh even though they were not directly in its path.

The waves were exacerbated by a higher-than-normal tide because of a full moon.

Relief workers delivered food and water to people marooned in 124 villages in Odisha, the state's top bureaucrat Suresh Mahapatra said. At least two people had died in the state.

Some 500,000 people were sheltered in relief camps in West Bengal, and officials said they had taken steps to reduce the risk of a potential spread of Covid-19.

"Flood shelters have quarantine rooms for those showing symptoms of Covid-19 like fever, sore throat, body ache," Dr Indranil Bargi, a medical officer in Gosaba area, told Reuters.

People are being tested for coronavirus using the rapid antigen test and anyone who tests positive would be shifted to safe homes set up in government offices and schools, he said.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said more than 300,000 homes were destroyed. Two people were killed in that state. West Bengal disaster management minister Javed Ahmed Khan told AFP that rescue efforts were being "complicated" by villagers refusing to leave their homes because of fears about coronavirus.

Mr Arjun Manna, a resident of Kakdwip in the Sunderbans delta and nature reserve area, said by phone: "Water is everywhere. The situation is very grim."

Mr Diprodas Chatterjee from the Hoteliers' Association in the seaside town of Digha told AFP: "The devastation is huge. Most hotels and markets are still inundated. The sea is still roaring."

Low-lying areas of state capital Kolkata were also flooded after the Hooghly river rose.

The authorities in Bangladesh reported flooding of villages due to heavy rains and tidal surges. Three people were dead, two by drowning and a third who was hit by a tree, an official at the Disaster Management Agency said.

Mr Humayum Kabir, an official in the coastal district of Khulna, said: "I have never seen a tidal surge rising to this level. It flooded many villages and washed away houses. Many people are marooned."

Yaas weakened yesterday to a deep depression as it drove inland over the Indian state of Jharkhand.

Elsewhere on the sub-continent, Nepal was bracing itself for floods in its plains and landslides in the hills as heavy rain has lashed the country since Wednesday and was forecast to last till tomorrow.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE