Recovery efforts are underway in eastern India and Bangladesh in the wake of Cyclone Bulbul. According to Aljazeera, at least 24 fatalities are being blamed on the flooding rainfall and damaging winds unleashed by the ferocious storm over the weekend.
Additionally, five others are missing, and more than 2 million across Bangladesh were relocated to shelters due to the cyclone.
As a severe cyclonic storm, Bulbul crossed the eastern coast of India late Saturday night local time. It made landfall in the state of West Bengal near the Sunderban Dhanchi forest late with a maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 km/h (68-74 mph).
This satellite loop shows Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Bulbul nearing landfall in India on Saturday Nov. 9, 2019. (Image/UW-CIMSS)
Through the rest of the weekend, Bulbul continued to move northeastward, bringing damaging winds and heavy tropical rainfall to the region.
By late Sunday, Bulbul weakened to the deep depression with winds around 50-60 km/h (68-74 mph), the equivalent of a tropical storm in the Atlantic.
On Saturday, the official Twitter account for Kolkata's airport reported it would close at 6 p.m. that day. The airport reopened Sunday morning.
The Kolkata airport reported over 130 mm (5 inches) of rainfall from Bulbul before it moved out of the region.
Winds packed strong enough of a punch that some villages from West Bengal were reportedly without electricity for several days.
Despite causing travel disruptions, rain in Kolkata could briefly improve air quality in the city for the next couple of days.
On Monday, conditions began to improve as rain gradually dissipated, allowing recovery efforts to begin.
Bulbul formed from what was once Tropical Storm Matmo that crossed the western Pacific Ocean and made landfall in Vietnam late in October. According to Colorado State University Meteorologist Philip Klotzbach, Bulbul "is the first storm to be named in the western North Pacific and then travel into the North Indian Ocean and become a named storm again since Wilma in 2013."
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