People living in coastal areas of India and Bangladesh are beginning the long rebuilding process after Tropical Cyclone Amphan killed more than 100 and left millions displaced from their homes.
“It is believed that around 10 million people in Bangladesh are impacted by the cyclone, with half a million families potentially having lost their homes," United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, according to a news release.
More than 3 million people were still in shelters Friday in Bangladesh and India, according to aid groups monitoring the situation.
There were concerns that the packed shelters could lead to a spike in COVID-19 infections and exacerbate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were suffering from the economic impact of the coronavirus ... with the cyclone, the state is now completely destroyed,” Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of India's West Bengal state said, according to the Associated Press.
More than 80 people were reported to have died in West Bengal state, according to the AP. Two people were killed in Odisha state, also in India. Television stations in Bangladesh reported 22 deaths.
(MORE: Tropical Cyclone Amphan Makes Landfall in India)
Debasis Shyamal, a fisherman in a coastal village in West Bengal, said social distancing took a backseat as he and others crammed into a government shelter.
“No one was thinking about the virus," he said. "We were just trying to stay alive."
Villages were inundated with water and homes were destroyed across the region, including in West Bengal's capital city Kolkata, where some 14 million people live. The storm is estimated to have caused more than $13 billion in damage in West Bengal, putting Amphan on track to be the costliest cyclone to ever hit India.
“It feels like a dystopian Jurassic Park of sorts,” Shuli Ghosh, who runs a cafe in Kolkata, told the AP. “The roofs of many homes have flown away and the streets are waterlogged.”
Villagers repair their house damaged by cyclone Amphan in Satkhira on May 22, 2020. - Bangladesh began a massive clean-up on May 21 after the fiercest cyclone since 1999 killed at least 95 people, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. (Photo by Munir Uz zaman / AFP)Areas affected in Bangladesh include regions where some of the poorest people in the world live, according to aid groups.
"There are houses which have collapsed and people could be trapped in them but we don't know yet," Debabrat Halder, who runs an aid group in one of the villages, told the BBC.
Ahead of the storm, aid workers were especially concerned about hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar and live in camps in Bangladesh. The UN said the camps escaped the worst damage, but at least 300 refugee shelters were damaged and 60 destroyed.
(MORE: India, Bangladesh Tell Millions to Evacuate as Tropical Cyclone Amphan Approaches)
Enamur Rahman, a disaster management official in Bangladesh, told the AP that the storm caused an estimated $130 million in damage, with over 680 miles of roads damaged, as well crops and fish farms.
The full scope of the damage still hasn't been assessed because roads and bridges are washed out, preventing crews from reaching some areas. Communications are down and there are still widespread power outages.
"Area after area has been ruined," Banerjee told the Press Trust of India news agency, according to the BBC.
Banerjee said the cyclone was "a bigger disaster than COVID-19."
The storm made landfall south of Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon with winds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. The storm weakened over Bangladesh with some rain spreading over far northeast India, Bhutan and northern Myanmar.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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