Cyclone batters India, Bangladesh coasts; millions flee
— A powerful cyclone plowed inland on Wednesday after crashing into the coasts of India and Bangladesh, where more than 2.6 million people fled to shelters in a frantic evacuation made more challenging by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cyclone Amphan, the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane, was packing sustained winds of up to 105 miles per hour with maximum gusts of 118 mph.
Although the cyclone was expected to weaken as it moved towards Bangladesh, authorities warned of extensive damage to flimsy houses and storm surges pushing seawater 15 miles inland, flooding cities including Kolkata.
The cyclone washed away bridges connecting Indian islands to the mainland and left many areas without electricity or phone service, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters Wednesday evening. She said while a clearer picture of the devastation would emerge by today, there had been at least 7 deaths.
“We are facing three crises: the coronavirus, the thousands of migrants who are returning home and now the cyclone,” said Banerjee, who is an opposition leader and one of the fiercest critics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The southern districts of the state were worst affected, officials said, adding the crisis was far from over, with strong winds likely to continue until early this morning.
As the cyclone hit the coast, coconut trees swayed wildly, electric poles lay scattered on the roads of Kolkata, rain pounded fishing villages and rivers surged. Thousands of homes were damaged and river embankments were washed away.
“The next 24 hours are very crucial. This is a long haul,” said M. Mohapatra, India’s meteorological chief.
The region, with 58 million people in the two bordering countries, has some of the most vulnerable communities in South Asia. They include poor fishing communities in the Sunderbans and more than 1 million Rohingya refugees living in crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
A woman crushed by a tree and a 13-year-old girl killed near Kolkata were among the first deaths reported in India. In southern Bangladesh, a volunteer in a cyclone preparedness team drowned when a boat capsized in a canal.
The cyclone could endanger India’s fight against the coronavirus, with supply lines cut, roads destroyed and lockdown measures slowing relief work, said T. Sundaramanan, a health systems consultant in Pondicherry in southeast India.
Tuhin Ghosh, director of the School of Oceanographic Studies at Jadavpur University, said the pandemic’s lockdown has already sapped people’s resilience.
“Because they are economically down, they are not getting enough food . ... When another disaster comes, then it’s a double impact,” he said.
The cyclone made landfall between the seaside resort of Digha in West Bengal and Bangladesh’s Hatiya Island. The eye of the storm was likely to pass through the Sunderbans, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, India’s meteorological department said.