May 21 Cyclone Amphan news

Our live coverage of Cyclone Amphan has concluded. You can find the latest developments here.

The death toll from Cyclone Amphan in Bangladesh has risen to 10, according to the governmental Health Emergency Operations Center. 

Five people have been killed in Barisal state, four in Khuna, and one in Chittagong. 

Among those killed in Barisal was a 57-year-old Red Crescent volunteer who drowned when attempting to help others to safety, the Red Crescent Society of Bangladesh said. 

The organization praised Syed Shah Alam as a generous and dedicated humanitarian.

Roofs are seen covered with plastic sheets as part of preparations for Cyclone Amphan in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Tuesday, May 20.

No major damage from Cyclone Amphan has been reported in the refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar, where nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees live. No injuries have been reported.

Achala Navaratne, a spokesperson for the American Red Cross in Bangladesh, said the charity’s teams are in the camps right now searching the area.

There was concern that the precipitation from the storm – though it made landfall on the other side of Bangladesh – could cause landslides in the refugee camps. Those living there already are subject to squalid conditions, and there is concern that a Covid-19 outbreak could arise in the camps after cases were reported last week.

It is becoming increasingly evident that hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical cyclones worldwide are becoming stronger and potentially more deadly as the globe warms due to the climate crisis, according to a new study.

The study, released on Monday by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), looked at nearly 40 years of satellite data of global storms.

Researchers found: the probability of storms reaching major hurricane status (category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson scale with winds in excess of 110 mph or higher), increased decade after decade.

Kossin and his team’s research spanned the globe, showing that storms across the world are becoming stronger and thus more destructive.

“Almost all of the damage and mortality caused by hurricanes is done by major hurricanes (category 3 to 5),” Kossin said. “Increasing the likelihood of having a major hurricane will certainly increase this risk.”

Cyclone Amphan is a current example: The cyclone was the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal, intensifying into a super cyclone and reaching sustained winds of 270 kph (165 mph) – the equivalent to a category 5 hurricane.

“Sea surface temperatures are much warmer than normal in the Bay of Bengal right now,” said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, who was not involved in the study. Warmer ocean temperatures are one of the main ingredients the new study pointed to in explaining the observed increase in storm strength.

Read the full story:

Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are becoming stronger, according to a new NOAA study

An aircraft is seen amidst a collapsed hangar at flooded Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport after the landfall of Cyclone Amphan in Kolkata on May 21.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, the main airport in Kolkata, appears to have been hit fairly hard by Cyclone Amphan.

Photographs show significant flooding at the facility, including at least one aircraft that was damaged in the storm.

The airport is one of the busiest in India. More than 20 million passengers passed through the facility from April 2018 through March 2019.

Aircrafts are parked at a terminal near the flooded tarmac at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport after the landfall of Cyclone Amphan in Kolkata on May 21.

Thousands of people have been left homeless in the wake of Cyclone Amphan, which slammed into India’s eastern coast yesterday afternoon, as authorities race to provide relief efforts in communities already stricken by the coronavirus. 

Amphan, which was the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal before it weakened, ripped apart homes, tore down trees, washed away bridges and left large predominately rural areas without power or communications. 

The state of West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday at least 12 people had died in eastern India, with one young girl in the Howrah district killed after a wall collapsed inside her home.

Large-scale evacuation efforts throughout India and neighboring Bangladesh appear to have saved many lives, but it could take days to realize the full extent of the deaths, injuries and damage from the cyclone. Fallen debris has made many of the roads impassible and heavy rains continue to fall on hard-hit areas.

In India: S.N. Pradhan, director-general of India’s National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), said the worst of the damage is concentrated in two of West Bengal’s coastal districts and that the Sunderbans had been “pulverized” by the cyclone.

In Bangladesh: Nearly every coastal district has been seriously affected by Cyclone Amphan, according to Ranjit Kumar Sen, an official at the Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

Read the full story:

A man salvages items from his house damaged by cyclone Amphan in Midnapore, West Bengal, on May 21, 2020. - The strongest cyclone in decades slammed into Bangladesh and eastern India on May 20, sending water surging inland and leaving a trail of destruction as the death toll rose to at least nine. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) (Photo by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areas

Indian and Bengali celebrities took to social media in order to send prayers and thoughts to those affected by Cyclone Amphan.

Actress Subhashree Ganguly sent several pictures of the devastation on her Twitter account.

Virat Kohli, the captain of the Indian cricket team and one of the best batsmen in the world, said in a tweet he was sending prayers to those in West Bengal. Former cricketer also tweeted a message.

Several Bollywood stars also sent messages of hope and prayers on Twitter, including actors Rajkummar Rao, Paoli Dam and Karan Tacker and filmmaker Karan Johar.

Gautam Gambhir, an Indian cricket star-turned politician, said “these are truly troubled times” and that his thoughts were with the people of the two worst-affetected states in India.

Several poorly maintained dykes and dams in Bangladesh broke down even before Cyclone Amphan made landfall on Wednesday, causing extensive flooding in parts of the country.

Snigdha Chakraborty with charity Catholic Relief Services said the country saw storm surges as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters), inundating houses throughout the country.

A total of 12,078 cyclone shelters were prepared throughout the country’s coastal regions, where over 2 million people were evacuated. About 40,000 livestock animals were also evacuated.

Though there has been significant damage across the coast, major destruction has not been reported so far in the refugee camp’s near Cox’s Bazar, where nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar currently live, Chakraborty said.

Some weak shelters were damaged in the storm and now need to be repaired, she said.

There was concern that the precipitation from the storm – though it made landfall on the other side of Bangladesh – could cause landslides in the refugee camps. Those living there already are subject to squalid conditions, and there is concern that a Covid-19 outbreak could arise in the camps after cases were reported last week.

Cyclone Amphan made landfall in eastern India, near the Bangladeshi border, on Wednesday, May 20.

Evacuation efforts in India and Bangladesh are being complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, as relief teams grapple with how to get millions of people to safety while also protecting them against the risk of Covid-19.

Photographs from the scene show powerful winds, heavy rain and significant damage in some places.

See more here:

A man cuts branches of an uprooted tree after Cyclone Amphan made its landfall, in Kolkata, India, May 21, 2020. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

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Nearly ever coastal district in Bangladesh has been seriously affected by Cyclone Amphan, according to Ranjit Kumar Sen, an official at the Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

Sen told CNN that the country has not yet reported an official death toll because authorities are still collecting information from its various remote field offices.

But he said the damage to along the coast was “huge.”

First responders are having trouble getting in touch with their counterparts due to serious communication issues caused by the storm in certain parts of West Bengal, authorities in India said.

The heavy winds and rain from Cyclone Amphan brought down power and phone lines in various parts of the state when the storm made landfall yesterday.

Kumar Ravi, the deputy commandant for India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in West Bengal said his team was working on restoring power and telecommunications across the state.

“It is very difficult to communicate with our teams on the ground,” he said.

Ravi also said he is not aware of any ongoing rescue operations for people trapped under debris.

A man salvages items from his house damaged by Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal, on May 21.

A district in the Indian state of West Bengal was “pulverized” by Cyclone Amphan, according to the head of the Indian National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)

S.N. Pradhan, the head of the agency, told CNN that the district of Sundarbans was hit with “maximum impact,” while the storm brought winds to Kolkata the likes of which the city had never seen.

“A lot of trees have been uprooted in the city,” Pradhan said. 

The NDRF expects people to start moving out of cyclone shelters today so they can assess the damage to their homes and begin repairs.

It will be some time before West Bengal is up and running again. Normal operations are expected to resume in the four least affected coastal districts in four to six days, Pradhan said. 

Cyclone Amphan made landfall in eastern India on Wednesday afternoon local time, and is currently drenching parts of the India-Bangladesh border with heavy rains.

Here’s what you should know.

• 12 fatalities so far, but more could be coming: At least a dozen people have been killed by the storm so far, according to the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee. One of them is a young girl who died after a wall from her house collapsed. The death toll could rise as first responders go town-by-town to assess the damage.
• Thousands of homes destroyed: Makeshift homes in densely populated areas of Bangladesh were uprooted by the storm’s powerful winds, said Dipankar Datta, the Bangladesh director for charity Oxfam.
• Flooding still a threat: Though the worst of the storm has likely passed, flash floods could still pose problems in the coming days. Amphan is likely to peter out as it reaches the Himalayas, but once there, it might cause some snowfall that will eventually melt and flow back down the Ganges and out through the river delta – near where the storm first made landfall.

Here’s a map showing the cyclone’s path:

Rescue workers in Kolkata cut tree branches that fell on a truck due to heavy winds.

Thousands of Indian migrant workers attempting to return home to Odisha state remain stranded after the cyclone forced the cancelation of special trains to the region, a senior railways official has said.

Migrant workers across India have been out of work and away from home since March 25, when a nationwide coronavirus lockdown came into effect. 

Special trains had been designated to take the workers home, but 15 scheduled to run along Odisha’s coastal region were suspended from May 19 to 21, railway spokesperson J.P. Mishra said.

“We hope to resume trains for coastal Odisha as soon as the cyclone subsides,” J.P Mishra told CNN.

The local government will loosen some COVID19-related travel restrictions to allow the flow of aid and support for those evacuated from the cyclone’s path, Mishra added. 

Of Odisha’s 809 permanent cyclone shelters, 211 are currently being used as COVID-19 quarantine centers. Schools and colleges have been converted to fill that gap.

Officials in Bhadrak, a city in the Indian state of Odisha, have evacuated 218 Pregnant women from the area’s coastal villages to health centers, the Indian government has said.

The Indian government said on Twitter that 60 of the evacuated women gave birth on May 19 and 20 under special medical care, as officials braced for the cyclone.

More than 150,000 people have been evacuated from Odisha’s coastal areas, the director general of India’s National Disaster Relief Force Satya Narayan Pradhan said earlier on Wednesday.

Though Cyclone Amphan is still packing winds of up to 110 kph (68 mph), the storm is weakening as it moves further inland. Right now, it is the equivalent of a tropical storm in the Atlantic or West Pacific and has moved over Bangladesh.

The storm and will continue to weaken and rain itself out over the next 24 hours as it travels northeast toward the Himalayas. The world’s highest mountain range will act as a natural barrier, absorbing the storm, which in turn, could result in new snow being formed.

More rain is expected over the next two days, perhaps as much as 100 to 200 millimeters (4 to 8 inches) in Bangladesh and perhaps 300 to 400 mm (12 to 16 inches) in parts of eastern India. 

The story’s not over just yet: Rain is likely to continue for several days, as tropical moisture is pumped in from the Bay of Bengal – perhaps as much as 300 mm (12 inches). The risk of flooding will remain high throughout the next five days, especially as the moisture from Amphan that moved up to the Himalayas trickles back down through the Ganges River Delta.

A satellite image released by NASA shows Cyclone Amphan over the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday, May 19.

Cyclone Amphan is a disaster bigger than Covid-19, said Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the east Indian state of West Bengal.

“The whole of the southern part of the state has been affected. We are shocked. It will take three to four days to asses the damage,” the chief minister said Wednesday at a news conference.

“The cyclone has affected the electricity supply and destroyed many houses, bridges and embankments,” she added.

According to Banerjee, about 500,000 people have been evacuated to shelters by the state administration. 

Banerjee confirmed that at least 12 people have died in eastern India after Cyclone Amphan made landfall there.

It’s been more than 12 hours since Cyclone Amphan made landfall as the equivalent of a category 2 Atlantic hurricane near Sagar Island in West Bengal, India, close to the Bangladeshi border.

While the worst appears to have passed, it will likely be a while before we learn the true extent of the damage wrought by the storm – which is usually the case when cyclones strike in rural India and Bangladesh.

In the past, fallen trees and other storm detritus have made roads impassible. Fallen power lines could complicate relief efforts.

Disaster response officials will likely need to go town-by-town to assess the damage, as heavy rains continue to fall on hard-hit areas.

So far, Indian authorities have reported at least 12 fatalities, but it’s very possible that number could rise as first responders get a better picture of what exactly happened after the storm made landfall.

At least 12 people have died in India after Cyclone Amphan made landfall on Wednesday, authorities said.

All the reported deaths took place in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, according the state chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Banerjee said one of the victims, a girl in the Howrah district, died after a wall from her house collapsed. She did not provide any further details how the rest of the deaths occurred.

Bangladesh Oxfam director, Dipankar Datta, told CNN that thousands of makeshift homes in Bangladesh have been uprooted due to the cyclone. He added that he does not expect the storm to hit the Rohingya refugee camp area near the town of Cox’s Bazaar.

Some background: Cyclone Amphan made landfall near Sagar Island in West Bengal, India, close to the Bangladeshi border around 5 p.m. local time with sustained winds of 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph), according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center, making it equivalent in intensity to a category 2 Atlantic hurricane.

Heavy rain is expected to lead to flash flooding across the region throughout Thursday morning. Once the storm pushes inland, it will weaken significantly and the storm is expected to dissipate by Friday.