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Deaths Confirmed as Officials Assess Destruction Caused by Cyclone Amphan

VOA News

   More than a dozen people are believed to have been killed Wednesday
   when a powerful cyclone hit parts of eastern India and Bangladesh,
   leaving a trail of mass destruction and chaos.

   Ten people were killed when Cyclone Amphan struck West Bengal state
   with sustained winds of up to 185 kph. West Bengal state Chief Minister
   Mamata Banerjee said Thursday that two districts had suffered extensive
   damage and would need rebuilding. "Area after area has been ruined. I
   have experienced a war-like situation today," Banerjee said.

   The cyclone also left a trail of devastation through the state's
   densely populated capital, Kolkata, with rain and strong winds
   uprooting trees and electric poles, disrupting power supply, damaging
   buildings and leaving homes waterlogged in low lying areas.

   "The impact of Amphan is worse than coronavirus," Banerjee said,
   referring to the pandemic that has sickened and killed millions of
   people across the globe, including more than 110,000 people in India,
   according to the latest figures.

   Amphan has been downgraded to a tropical depression but is still
   expected to drench parts of inland India and Bangladesh with heavy
   rains and floods, damaging some of the weaker houses and buildings.

   Nearly 300,000 people were evacuated from West Bengal state and 150,000
   from Odisha state, both in India.

   The storm struck while South Asia struggles with the coronavirus
   pandemic.

   The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says the storm has put 19
   million children at risk, not only from the direct effects of floods
   and wind damage, but from the potential spread of COVID-19 in crowded
   evacuation shelters.

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