Cyclone Amphan leaves trail of destruction in Bangladesh, India

A powerful cyclone has hit Bangladesh and eastern India, killing at least 22 people and destroying thousands of homes, officials said, leaving authorities struggling to mount relief efforts amid a surging coronavirus outbreak.

Authorities began surveying the damage on Thursday after millions spent a sleepless night which saw up to 170km/h (105 mph) winds carrying away trees, electricity pylons, walls and roofs, and transformer stations exploding.

Millions across India and Bangladesh were left without power in the wake of the most powerful cyclone to have hit in more than 20 years.

Residents in the Indian city of Kolkata, the capital of the hard-hit West Bengal state, awoke to flooded streets with some cars window-deep in water. Television footage showed the airport inundated.

"The impact of Amphan is worse than coronavirus," Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, told local media, saying that at least 12 people had died in the state.

"Thousands of mud huts have been levelled, trees uprooted, roads washed away and crops destroyed," she said.



'Everything is destroyed'

In neighbouring Bangladesh, officials said 10 people had died, including a five-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man who were hit by falling trees, and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned.

Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the capital, Dhaka, said the cyclone "was one of the most intense in a decade" to hit Bangladesh, with authorities expecting losses of more than $1bn.

"Five million people are without power. There have been heavy damages, especially in southwestern Bangladesh in the Sundarbans mangrove forest which got the direct hit ... thousands of houses have been washed away due to the tidal surge," Chowdhury said.

"People are definitely going to lose croplands and fisheries. That area is known for shrimp culture and other aquaculture, so these people are going to lose their livelihood."

Bangladesh officials said they were waiting for reports from the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its mangrove forest and population of endangered Bengal tigers.

www.aljazeera.com