Making a disastrous landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, Super Cyclone Amphan battered the West Bengal and Odisha claiming lives and wreaking havoc. Ferocious wind and rain have so far claimed almost 15 live in India and seven in Bangladesh.
According to the ground reports, bridges were swept away while almost 14 million people in Kolkata are without electricity and disrupted communications from the past 24 hours. Reacting over the same, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed the devastation as a bigger one than Covid-19. Dramatic visuals recorded by residents and shared on social media showed electricity transformers exploding in busy neighbourhoods as the storm swept the city.
WATCH- The impact of #CycloneAmphan on Kolkata Airport. An old Air India hangar has sustained maximum damage, its roof has collapsed. pic.twitter.com/zYmzDf28ah
— Zeba Warsi (@Zebaism) May 21, 2020
The Odisha government has already deployed NDRF teams in Six districts- Balasore, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Kendrapara, Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur while Road clearance and restoration work underway in Kolkata, West Bengal. While fishing had already been suspended in the wake of lockdown, social-distancing measures have made mass evacuations more difficult for authorities, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity.
