Cyclone Amphan: India, Bangladesh begin clean-up operation
INDIA - Authorities in eastern India and Bangladesh have been struggling to restore road links, communication lines and electricity after a devastating cyclone in which at least 95 people were killed.
“I assure my brothers and sisters of West Bengal that the entire country stands with you in these difficult times”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday after conducting an aerial survey of the devastation in the state. He announced emergency aid of 10 billion rupees (USD131.7m) for the state, which bore the brunt of Cyclone Amphan in India. More than 70 people have been killed in the state.
The state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, who accompanied Modi, had earlier said the cyclone was worse than the coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 people in India.
“I haven’t seen a disaster of this magnitude”, she said.
The United Nations office in Bangladesh estimates some 10 million people were affected, and some 500,000 people may have lost their homes.
Improved weather forecasting meant Bangladesh was able to move some 2.4 million people into shelters or out of the storm’s direct path, while India evacuated some 650,000.
At least 10 million people were without power on Thursday afternoon in the worst-hit districts of Bangladesh, rural electricity board chief Moin Uddin told AFP news agency.
The storm levelled more than 55,000 homes - most made of tin, mud and bamboo across Bangladesh, junior disaster management minister Enamur Rahman told AFP.
Thousands of trees which blocked roads in West Bengal were being cleared, water pumped out and electricity gradually restored.
Police were using drones to assess the damage in Kolkata, a city of 14 million people, where an estimated 10,000 trees were brought down during the storm that lasted several hours and brought extensive flooding.
“The city is still in a state of shock”, Kolkata’s deputy mayor, Atin Ghosh, told Reuters News Agency. “Municipal teams, civil defence personnel, police personnel have been working overtime to restore road connectivity first. But there is an acute shortage of manpower due to coronavirus related restrictions”, Ghosh said. “Private buses and trains are still not in service. We really need citizens of Kolkata to come forward and lend a helping hand in whatever way possible.”
Reuters television footage showed some streets strewn with uprooted trees, while torn power lines lay amid pools of stagnant water.
The clean-up operations are complicated by the new coronavirus with millions now housed in emergency shelters after their homes were destroyed.
(AlJazeera)