Amphan is the first 'super cyclone' to form over the Bay of Bengal since 1999, and packed winds gusting up to 185 kilometres per hour.
Residents walk along a street to a shelter ahead of the expected landfall of cyclone Amphan in Digha, West Bengal, on May 20, 2020. Picture: Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP
Authorities scrambled to evacuate more than three million people from low-lying areas, but the task was complicated by the need to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Two other fatalities were reported by Indian media, including an infant crushed when the mud wall of the family’s hut collapsed in heavy rain in Odisha state.
“Scores of trees and electricity poles have been uprooted,” hotel owner Partha Tripathi told AFP by phone. “There are washed up boats on the beach.” But Bangladesh authorities still fear Amphan will be the most powerful storm front since Cyclone Sidr killed about 3,500 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in 2007.
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