Trees lie uprooted on a highway from heavy winds during Cyclone Amphan landfall, at Chandbali on the Bay of Bengal coast.
Heavy rain, gusty winds upto 190 kmph battered West Bengal, Odisha after extremely severe cyclone Amphan made landfall on Wednesday uprooting thousands of trees in Kolkata's Salt Lake area, howrah, hoogly, other regions. Over 6 lakh people have been evacuated in both the states and shifted to secure places, camps as cyclone Amphan wreaks havoc in Bengal damaging houses, weak structures resulting in loss of life and property.
Severe cyclonic storm Amphan caused severe damages in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas districts and their nearby areas, with a wind speed ranging from 155 to 185 kmph, accompanied by heavy rainfall.
"We are not getting proper reports as the connections have been completely cut off due to the storm. But the total losses are likely to amount to thousands of crores. It will take at least 3-4 days to do an initial assessment of the losses. Many bridges and kutcha houses have been completely ravaged," West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said while giving an account of damages in state due to Amphan.
Reports said that Amphan has already destroyed over 5,000 houses in Minakhan, Haroa, Basirhat Hingalgunj and Hasnabad areas of North 24 Parganas district.
Most of the areas in Howrah and North 24 Parganas faced massive power cuts due to heavy rainfall. Roofs of several houses also collapsed as a result of the strong winds during the cyclonic spell. There have been damages inside the state secretariat building Nabanna as well.
Two teams of NDRF have already started road clearance work at Shyampur Block in Howrah district, sources said.
(With inputs from IANS)
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