Cyclone Amphan batters Bengal, leaves large parts out of electricity, internet; 72 dead
Kolkata/IBNS: Cyclone Amphan on Wednesday pummelled the eastern state of West Bengal leaving at least 72 people dead, countless homeless, besides plunging large parts of the state without electricity, internet connections and other communications as the six-hour-long calamitous dance of the nature left even the city airport in disarray.
West Bengal and its capital Kolkata resemble a jigsaw puzzles of devastation and human misery with many homeless as authorities try to reach relief amid the scare of coronavirus.
UPDATE: 72 PEOPLE ARE DEAD IN THE CYCLONE, SAYS CHIEF MINISTER MAMATA BANERJEE AT A PRESS CONFERENCE. OF THEM 15 DEATHS WERE REPORTED FROM KOLKATA.
Cyclone Amphan crossed West Bengal-Bangladesh coast between Digha (West Bengal) and Hatiya Islands (Bangladesh) across Sunderbans near lat 21.65N & long 88.3E between 1530 & 1730 hrs IST of 20th May with wind speed of 155-165 gusting to 185 mph, the Indian Met Department stated.
The cyclone's wind speed was 133 km per hour, 3 km per hour more than what was in the forecast in the worst-case scenario, as it left Kolkata towards North 24 Parganas.
Kolkata received heavy rains and witnessed huge gush of wind storms which damaged the roofs of several buildings and uprooted a massive number of trees, lampposts across the city.
As per local media reports, even a temple in north Kolkata's CR Avenue was uprooted.
The cyclone has left a huge damage in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas.
Even on Thursday morning, mobile networks are unstable in Kolkata which is the capital city of West Bengal.
A portion of Kolkata airport was found damaged due to Amphan, which is the second 'super cyclone' to have originated over the Bay of Bengal (since the time of recording), besides getting flooded due to rains.
#CycloneAmphan leaves behind a trail of destruction in West Bengal, several deaths reported. A viral video of #Kolkata airport #NSCBI airport pic.twitter.com/ZIySfwRUUa
— India Blooms (@indiablooms) May 21, 2020
Several roads in Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and other districts are blocked due to the uprooted trees, lampposts.
In some Twitter videos, electric transformers were also seen getting exploded in the eastern part of the city.
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In another video, a rooftop of a school in Howrah district was seen blown off by the strong winds on Wednesday.
#WATCH West Bengal: Rooftop of a school in Howrah was blown away by strong winds earlier today. #CycloneAmphan pic.twitter.com/nJY0KhAC3Z
— ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2020
The calamity occurred at a time West Bengal along wit 35 other states and union territories of India was combating pandemic Coronavirus or Covid-19.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee termed the devastation as "bigger disaster than Covid-19".
Addressing a press conference from the control room of state headquarters Nabanna, Banerjee, who looked depressed, said, "Everything has been ruined. The losses amount to around lakhs of crores."
"At least 10-12 people have lost their lives," Banerjee confirmed.
Besides West Bengal, its neighbouring state Odisha was also impacted due to the cyclone.
Amphan has reportedly left five people dead in Odisha.
(Images and videos by Avishek Mitra and Sandip Das)
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