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Amphan: Indian city of Kolkata devastated by cyclone Amphan: Kolkata devastated as cyclone leaves trail of death
(about 5 hours later)
The eastern Indian city of Kolkata has been devastated by a powerful cyclone. The eastern Indian city of Kolkata has been devastated by a powerful cyclone which has killed at least 22 people across India and Bangladesh.
Cyclone Amphan made landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people as it lashed coastal areas with ferocious wind and rain. Storm Amphan struck land on Wednesday, lashing coastal areas with ferocious wind and rain. It is now weakening as it moves north into Bhutan.
Many of Kolkata's 14 million people are without electricity and communications have been disrupted. Thousands of trees were uprooted in the gales, electricity and telephone lines brought down and houses flattened.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the devastation was "a bigger disaster than Covid-19". Many of Kolkata's roads are flooded and its 14 million people without power.
Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal state which has seen 3,103 confirmed cases of the infection. The storm is the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999. Though its winds had weakened by the time it struck, it was still classified as a very severe cyclone.
"Area after area has been ruined. I have experienced a war-like situation today," Ms Banerjee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. Coronavirus restrictions have been hindering emergency and relief efforts. Covid-19 and social-distancing measures made mass evacuations more difficult, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity.
She said the storm had killed 10-12 people In West Bengal. The three districts of South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore were the worst affected. Amphan began hitting the Sundarbans, a mangrove area around the India-Bangladesh border home to four million people on Wednesday afternoon, before carving north and north-eastwards towards Kolkata, a historic city that was the capital of the British Raj.
BBC Bengali's Amitabha Bhattasali who is based in Kolkata, said much of the city and its neighbouring districts have been without electricity for 17 hours. Parts of West Bengal and Orissa (Odisha) states in India, and areas in south-west Bangladesh, bore the brunt, with winds gusting up to 185km/h (115mph).
Mobile phone networks are not working in some of the worst hit areas, our correspondent adds. At least 10 deaths in Bangladesh and 12 in India's West Bengal state have so far been confirmed by the authorities.
Dramatic visuals recorded by residents and shared on social media showed electricity transformers exploding in busy neighbourhoods as the storm swept the city. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the devastation in Kolkata, the state capital, was "a bigger disaster than Covid-19".
"Thank God, we are safe," remarked another resident, sharing visuals of tiled roofs being blown away. "Area after area has been ruined," Ms Banerjee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. "I have experienced a war-like situation today."
Local news networks showed visuals of uprooted trees, lampposts and traffic lights. Three districts in West Bengal - South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore - were very badly hit. In Bangladesh, the worst-affected district was Satkhira, where large areas have been flooded as embankments collapsed in several places.
Images of water logged streets, vehicles crushed under fallen trees and broken river jetties were also all over local media. Initial assessments of the damage are being hampered by blocked roads and flooding in all these areas.
Journalists on the field wore face masks to protect against Covid-19 and were struggling to report in the middle of the raging storm. BBC Bengali's Amitabha Bhattasali in Kolkata says much of the city and its neighbouring districts have been without electricity for a day. Mobile phone networks are not working in some of the worst-hit areas.
"It is like the vault of hell outside," wrote Kajal Basu, on Facebook after the storm began. Dramatic images shared on social media showed electricity transformers exploding in busy neighbourhoods as the storm swept the city.
Mr Basu, who lives on the 12th floor of a high-rise building in the city, said his building seemed to be "swaying from side to side, mimicking an earthquake". "Thank God, we are safe," said a resident, who shared footage of tiled roofs being peeled off by the force of the wind and blown away.
"Sounds of tortured metal, glass breaking. Palm trees uprooted. Power lines came crackling and spitting at three places nearby," he wrote. Local news networks showed uprooted traffic lights in flooded streets, as well as broken river jetties and vehicles crushed under fallen trees.
Most people were home when the storm struck. The city is in lockdown because of the pandemic, and officials had also been preparing for the cyclone for days. "Trees uprooted, power supply snapped, lamp posts unhinged, glass panes in the locality shattered, internet connections flickered. Children screamed," resident Shamik Bag told the BBC.
"Trees uprooted, power supply snapped, lamp posts unhinged, glass panes in the locality shattered, Internet connections flickered. Children screamed," Shamik Bag, a resident, told the BBC. "Even with all doors and windows tightly shut, my house groaned under the pressure of the howling wind outside. Within 45 minutes, the streets outside got flooded, even as flood waters rushed into the ground floor of homes.
"Even with all doors and windows tightly shut, my house groaned under the pressure of the howling wind outside. Within 45 minutes, the streets outside got flooded, even as flood waters rushed into the ground floor of homes."
"When the power lines were restored after the storm, neighbourhood children, much like our own childhood when power-cuts were rampant, burst out in a spontaneous, cheerful chorus.""When the power lines were restored after the storm, neighbourhood children, much like our own childhood when power-cuts were rampant, burst out in a spontaneous, cheerful chorus."
The Telegraph newspaper said Calcutta's waterlogged roads "looked like a dark and slithering reptile on Wednesday night as howling winds continued to haunt the city's deserted, Amphan-ravaged corridors". Kajal Basu, who lives on the 12th floor of a high-rise building in the city, wrote on Facebook after the storm began: "It is like the vault of hell outside."
Coronavirus restrictions have been hampering emergency and relief efforts. The building seemed to be "swaying from side to side, mimicking an earthquake", he said. "Sounds of tortured metal, glass breaking. Palm trees uprooted. Power lines came crackling and spitting at three places nearby."
Covid-19 and social-distancing measures have made mass evacuations more difficult for authorities, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity. Kolkata's waterlogged roads "looked like a dark and slithering reptile on Wednesday night as howling winds continued to haunt the city's deserted, Amphan-ravaged corridors", the Telegraph newspaper reported.
The storm is the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999. Though its winds have now weakened, it is still classified as a very severe cyclone. Most people were at home when the storm struck. Kolkata and the rest of India is in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials in Bangladesh fear Amphan will be the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr which killed about 3,500 people in 2007. Most died as a result of sea water surging in.
India's weather department had predicted storm surges as high as 10-16 feet (3-5 metres). The rising of sea levels in this way can send deadly walls of water barrelling far inland, devastating communities.
Meteorologists have also warned of flooding and deadly mudslides.