At least 12 persons were reported dead – two in West Bengal and 10 in Bangladesh – after severe cyclonic storm Remal made landfall and crossed the coast on Sunday night, The Hindu reported.
Remal made landfall between Sagar Island in West Bengal and Bangladesh’s Khepupara.
The weather system produced winds as fast as 120 kilometres/hour in some locations and inundated hundreds of villages, weakening into a cyclonic storm on Monday with winds as fast as 80 to 90 kilometres/hour, according to the India Meteorological Department.
In West Bengal, 51-year-old Sheikh Sajid was killed in Kolkata’s Entally after the roof of a structure crashed down on him. Eighty-year-old Renuka Mondal was killed in Mousuni Island, at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal, after a tree fell on her house.
Around 68 trees were uprooted in Kolkata city and another 75 in nearby Salt Lake locality due to the storm, PTI reported.
Flights resumed at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Monday morning after being suspended for 21 hours. Train services in the southern arm of the state’s Sealdah division also resumed on Monday.
The Kolkata airport had suspended operations from 12 pm on Sunday, disrupting 394 flights. Over 40 trains were cancelled and five trains were rescheduled in the Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway in Kolkata.
Tidal waves also crashed into a seawall in the coastal resort town of Digha in West Bengal. Several low-lying areas in Kolkata were inundated due to heavy rainfall, PTI reported.
The severe cyclonic storm gradually weakened into a cyclonic storm and is likely to downgrade into a deep depression by Monday evening, reported ANI.
As of 1:45 pm, AFP reported that 10 people had died in Bangladesh.
Showkat Ali, the government administrator of Bangladesh’s Barisal district, where seven people were killed, said: “The cyclone has damaged more than 1,23,000 homes in the division, and among them some 31,000 homes were completely damaged.”
AFP reported that around 1.25 crore people in Bangladesh lost power as a result of the cyclone.
Ahead of the landfall, the West Bengal government had evacuated nearly 1.1 lakh residents from coastal regions, including the Sagar Island and the Sundarbans, to cyclone shelters, the Hindustan Times reported.
The National Disaster Response Force had deployed 14 teams to vulnerable areas across nine districts in West Bengal, with additional teams on standby.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services has issued a warning of high waves measuring 3.5 metres to 7.2 metres on Monday night along the coastline between Digha and Bakkhali in West Bengal, reported The Indian Express.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reviewed the state’s preparedness for Cyclone Remal on Sunday. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had urged people to stay safe.
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