'Super cyclone' bears down on India and Bangladesh
20 May, 2020
Several million persons were taking shelter and praying to find the best on Wednesday (May 20) as the Bay of Bengal's fiercest cyclone in decades roared towards Bangladesh and eastern India, with forecasts of a potentially devastating and deadly storm surge.
Authorities have scrambled to low-lying areas in the road of Amphan, which is only the next "super cyclone" to create in the northeastern Indian Ocean since records began.
But their efforts have been hampered by the necessity to follow strict precautions to avoid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, with infection numbers still soaring in both countries.
"At least 50 persons took shelter in my concrete-built house. They came last evening. We gave them food," Abdur Rahim, a Bangladeshi shrimp farmer on the edge of the Sundarbans mangrove forest told AFP.
"There is panic. The ladies are worried ... A few months ago Cyclone Bulbul smashed our village, destroying at least 100 homes. We hope Allah helps you to save us this time."
Out at sea the vast weather system - visible from space - was 125km offshore with gusts up to 200kmh, the same as a category three hurricane, the Indian Meteorological Department said.
It was expected to ease slightly but nonetheless pack a ferocious punch when it crosses the coasts of West Bengal state and neighbouring Bangladesh on Wednesday "afternoon to evening" with gusts up to 185 kmh.
Bangladeshi forecasters said it would hit around 6pm (8pm, Singapore time), with a potential storm surge up to 5m.
The storm could "cause large-scale and comprehensive damage," said the top of India's weather office Mrutyunjay Mohapatra.
Along with "very heavy rainfall" the machine was expected to result in a storm surge pushing the ocean level several metres higher, his office said.
Storm surges can force a wall of water to cascade several kilometres inland, and so are often in charge of massive loss of life through the most severe cyclones.
Sanjib Banerjee from West Bengal weather office said that parts of Kolkata could see "severe damage". Early Wednesday the sky there is ominously grey. At the coast it had been raining and the ocean rough.
"We have mobilised a lot more than 20,000 policemen, emergency personnel and volunteers, boats and buses to evacuate around 300,000 persons from coastal villages," state premier Mamata Banerjee said.
"It's a very trial when the state is combating the coronavirus pandemic," she said.
REGULAR VICTIMS
Bangladesh's low-lying coast, home to 30 million people, and India's east are regularly battered by cyclones which may have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women in recent decades.
The eastern Indian state of Odisha was hit by a brilliant cyclone that left almost 10,000 dead in 1999, eight years after a typhoon, tornadoes and flooding killed 139,000 in Bangladesh. In 1970 Cyclone Bhola killed half a million.
As the storms' frequency and intensity have increased - a phenomenon blamed partly on climate change - deaths have fallen thanks to faster evacuations, better technology and more shelters.
But Bangladesh authorities still fear that Amphan would be the most powerful storm front since Cyclone Sidr devastated the country in 2007, killing about 3,500 persons and causing billions of dollars in damage.
The united states has been feverishly attempting to bring 2.2 million persons to safety, while West Bengal was relocating 300,000 others.
Authorities have scrambled to stage mass evacuations from the path of Amphan, such as for example in the village of Dhalchar on Bangladesh's Bhola Island. (AFP Photo)
The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) aid group said persons faced "an impossible choice" of braving the cyclone by staying put, or risking coronavirus infection in a shelter.
Authorities in both countries said that these were using extra shelter space to lessen crowding, while also making face masks compulsory and providing extra soap and sanitiser.
"We are also keeping separate isolation rooms in the shelters for any infected patients," Bangladesh's junior disaster management minister Enamur Rahman told AFP.
ROHINGYA REFUGEES
Although outside the predicted direct path of the storm, there are fears for the safety of almost a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in southeastern Bangladesh - most moving into vast camps and housed in flimsy and makeshift shacks.
The first coronavirus cases were reported there the other day, and by Tuesday there have been six confirmed infections.
The UN said emergency items such as for example food, tarpaulins and water purification tablets have been stockpiled, while authorities said the refugees will be moved to sturdier buildings like schools.
"Heavy rains, flooding (and) the destruction of homes and farmland, will improve the likelihood of the virus spreading, particularly in densely populated areas just like the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar," ActionAid said.
"It will undoubtedly improve the number of lives and livelihoods already lost to the pandemic."
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