CYCLONE: Sound & Fury

An extremely severe cyclone packing winds of up to 190 kmph roared into West Bengal on Wednesday, dumping heavy rain and leaving a trail of destruction that left at least three people dead, officials said. The toll could mount.

Many buildings in Kolkata were damaged and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee couldn’t help drawing a comparison. "The impact of Cyclone Amphan – pronounced as ‘Um-pun’, which means the sky -- has been worse than the coronavirus pandemic," she said.

That may assessment not be off the mark, because the damage wreaked by Amphan could be around Rs 1 lakh crore. The extent of devastation can be gauged from the fact that over five lakh people have taken refuge in shelters.

North and South 24 Parganas districts were the worst hit and Mamata said that Bengal "will have to rebuild everything".

The wind speed was 110-120 km per hour when it reached

Howrah, Kolkata and Hooghly, a senior IMD official told reporters.

After making landfall at 2.30 p.m. between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya Island in Bangladesh, Amphan cut a swathe through the coastal areas, flattening fragile dwellings, uprooting trees and electric poles.

At least 6.58 lakh people had to be evacuated in West Bengal and Odisha before the cyclone struck.

TV footage showed gigantic tidal waves crashing into a seawall in Digha, close to the landfall site.

Thick sheets of rain blurred the vast coastline in the two states and surging waters engulfed mud-and-thatch houses, flattening them in a trice.

Heavy machinery was moved in to clear the roads blocked by falling trees.

The IMD chief said the intensity of the rain and winds accompanying the cyclone could deceptively look like ebbing away briefly, but will surge afresh once the rear sector of the storm has reached the landmass.

Streets and homes in low lying areas of Kolkata were swamped with rainwater.

Despite losing its force a bit since Tuesday, the storm, which was categorised as super cyclone at one point of time, has lef t the two eastern states on edge as it hollered on its destructive path over the Bay of Bengal. The rains and high-velocity winds will ebb in Odisha by late Wednesday night by when the cyclone will likely have caused massive damage to standing crops, plantations and infrastructure.