West Bengal on Monday said nearly 29,500 houses in 24 blocks and 79 municipal wards, mostly in the south coastal areas of West Bengal, were partially or entirely damaged by Cyclone Remal. The state officials said at least six people lost their lives in the severe cyclone.
Six persons — one in Kolkata, two women in South 24 Parganas district, one in Panihati in North 24 Parganas district and a father-son duo in Memari in Purba Medinipur — lost their lives due to the cyclone.
2,140 trees were uprooted, and about 1,700 electric poles fell in various parts of the state, he added.
Out of the damaged houses, 27,000 suffered partial damage, while 2,500 were completely destroyed, the authority said.
The official cautioned that these figures might change as evaluations are ongoing, with data collection and damage estimation still in progress.
"The figures will probably change as the evaluation process is still not complete. Data is being collected from the districts and the estimation of the damage is being calculated," the official said.
2,07,060 people were sifted to 1,438 safe shelters.
"In all, 341 gruel kitchens being operated at the moment. We have distributed 17,738 tarpaulins to the affected people in the coastal and low-lying areas," he added.
The cyclone-damaged areas include Kakdwip, Namkhana, Sagard Island, Diamond Harbour, Fraserganj, Bakkhali and Mandarmani. There were minor breaches of embankments due to the cyclone, he said, adding that those were repaired immediately.
"No major breach of embankment has been reported so far. All those reported were minor ones and were addressed immediately," he said.
Coastal regions bore the brunt of cyclone Remal's fury, with significant infrastructural damage reported in both West Bengal and neighboring Bangladesh, where winds reached speeds of up to 135 km/h.
10 dead, 15 million without power in Bangladesh
Meanwhile, at least 10 people were killed and millions were left without power as the severe cyclone battered the coasts of Bangladesh with devastating winds of up to 120 kph and storm surges, inundating hundreds of villages.
Bangladesh's junior minister for disaster management and relief, Mohibur Rahman, said that 10 people were killed in the official count so far, while the storm entirely damaged over 35 households and affected over 3.
75 million people.
'Remal' weakened into a cyclonic storm on Monday morning, sustaining wind speeds of 80-90 kilometres per hour, following landfall around midnight of Sunday, the Met Department said.
The department said that the weather system, which lay 150 km northeast of Sagar Island at 5.30 am, brought torrential rain and moved northeastwards to weaken further into a cyclonic storm.
It lashed Bangladesh's coastlines, levelling thousands of homesteads, smashing seawalls, and flooding scores of villages and towns along the southwestern shorelines.
Also read: Mumbai teenage boy drives man on BMW bonnet on busy Kalyan road, father booked | WATCH
