It is one of the strongest storms in the region’s recent history. Around three million people had to flee to emergency shelters in the middle of the corona pandemic.
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Cyclone “Amphan” has killed at least 24 people in India and Bangladesh. Up to ten people died in Bangladesh, and twelve were reported dead in the Indian state of West Bengal. According to the authorities, two died in the Indian state of Odisha. Most of them died when walls collapsed, drowned or were killed by falling trees. The cyclone had reached the mainland on Wednesday with a lot of wind and rain. According to the authorities, more than three million people had been taken to emergency shelters. At least one million people in Bangladesh had no electricity, according to the Ministry of Energy. Hundreds of villages have been flooded due to a tidal wave.
According to the Indian Meteorological Service, “Amphan” has been one of the worst storms in the region in the past 20 years. The wind had reached a speed of up to 185 km / h. Among other things, the densely populated city of Kolkata in northeastern India with 15 million inhabitants and coastal regions with many simply constructed huts are affected. During the course of the day on Thursday, the Indian Meteorological Agency and the civil protection department expected further heavy rains, thunderstorms and gusts of wind. The storm is said to continue over Bangladesh and later move north to Bhutan.
The corona pandemic makes the great evacuation even more difficult than usual. To ensure distance, authorities in both countries said they provided more emergency accommodation than usual in storms like this. Empty schools would be used. However, it was difficult to find more buildings, as some emergency shelters currently served as quarantine buildings or temporary accommodations for stranded migrant workers. Pankay Anand of the Oxfam aid organization said that some people are afraid of being infected with the corona virus in the shelters. In some cases, masks or disinfectants would be distributed.
The intensity of the storms is increasing due to climate change
The head of government of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, said on Wednesday evening that the damage was difficult to assess. She pointed out that entire islands had been cut off from the mainland. In the capital of the state, Kolkata, many centuries-old buildings were badly damaged. “We are facing three crises: the corona virus, the thousands of migrants returning home and now the cyclone,” said Banerjee.
India and Bangladesh are struggling with more and more corona infections, and there is a curfew in both countries. According to records by the American Johns Hopkins University in India, more than 112,000 people have now been shown to be infected with the virus, and more than 3,400 died from the lung disease Covid-19. Bangladesh has over 26,700 confirmed infections and over 380 deaths.
Cyclones occur again and again in the Gulf of Bengal. A large cyclone in 1999 killed around 10,000 people. Experts believe that the intensity of the storms has tended to increase in recent years, partly due to the climate crisis. However, the number of victims has generally been smaller in recent years, as there are now more good emergency shelters and evacuation plans.
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