Super cyclone Amphan has left more than 80 people dead and millions more evacuated or without electricity. "The situation is more worrying than the coronavirus pandemic," an Indian official said.
Image: Reuters/R. de Chowdhuri
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More than 80 people are dead and over 3 million displaced by Cyclone Amphan as it hit India and Bangladesh, authorities said Thursday. The cyclone is one of the most powerful storms to hit south Asia ever.
Amphan destroyed thousands of homes, uprooted and trees and caused severe flooding. The Indian state of West Bengal took the brunt of the storm that made landfall on Wednesday evening.
Winds reached 185 km/h (115 mph) and the Indian city of Kolkata, home to 15 million people, saw severe damage to buildings, power outages and destruction of infrastructure. At least 74 people were killed in West Bengal alone, 15 in Kolkata, mostly due to collapsed walls and drowning, the state's chief minister Mamata Banerjee said. A further 12 are reported dead in Bangladesh.
Kolkata has been badly hit by the stormImage: Reuters/
"We are facing three crises: The coronavirus, the thousands of migrants who are returning home and now the cyclone," said Banjeree. "The situation is more worrying than the coronavirus pandemic. We don't know how to handle it," she added.
She also pointed out that the full scale of the destruction was not yet known, as many islands in the Bay of Bengal were cut off from contact.
Coronavirus slows evacuation effort
Social distancing measures introduced to slow the spread of coronavirus hampered evacuation efforts, with many people in India and Bangladesh refusing to leave their homes for fear of infection in storm shelters.
Authorities in Bangladesh still managed to bring over 2.4 million people to shelters, where face masks are compulsory. Infection rates are soaring in the country.
The storm crossed the border from India into Bangladesh late Wednesday evening. Over a million people are without electricity and hundreds of villages are under water because of tidal surges, and many villages are completely destroyed. A dozen flood protection embankments have been breached.
Concerns were raised over the Bhasan Char island, where hundreds of Rohingya refugees are housed, and the world's largest refugee camp near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, where 1 million more live in cramped conditions.
The hurricane is expected to lose speed later on Thursday. Amphan was the first "super cyclone" to hit the Bay of Bengal since 1999, when 150,000 people died.
Cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes - the power of devastation
Cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes pack a devastating punch: wherever they go, they leave a trail of destruction. But how do these powerful tropical storms arise?
Image: AFP/D. Sarkar
Social distancing impossible during Cyclone Amphan
Residents along Bangladesh's coast are being moved to safety as one of the strongest cyclones in years strikes the region. Millions of people had to be evacuated from low-lying regions along the Bay of Bengal on May 19. But plans are complicated by the coronavirus precautions. Maintaining social distancing is nearly impossible.
Image: AFP/District Administration of Bhola
Typhoon season amid the COVID-19 pandemic
On May 14, Typhoon Vongfong slammed the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rains, destroying the city of San Policarpo in the eastern province of Samar. At least five people died and more than 91,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Typhoons are not unusual in the Philippines at this time of year. But the COVID-19 outbreak lockdown measures are exacerbating the situation.
Image: AFP/A. Beronio
Three names - one phenomenon
Hurricane, typhoon, and cyclone are actually three names for the same phenomenon. Along the North American coast they are called hurricanes, in East and Southeast Asia they are called typhoons, and near India and Australia they are called cyclones. But despite the different names, they develop in the same way.
Image: Reuters
A cyclone is created
Tropical storms develop over oceans when the water temperature is at least 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). As the warm water evaporates and condenses, the air around it heats up and drags cooler air upwards, creating powerful winds.
The eye of the storm
The Earth's rotation causes the air stream to move around the eye of the storm, which can be up to 50 kilometers wide. This area is nearly completely free of clouds and wind.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A storm hits land
When a tropical storm hits a coastline, it becomes weaker due to the lack of warm water. In Australia, "Marcia" was soon downgraded to a category one storm, while "Lam" weakened after striking near Brisbane. Masses of water from the sea often cause the worst damage - as seen here in China after Typhoon Nanmadol in August 2011.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Chaos ensues
Hurricane Sandy was one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded over the Atlantic Ocean. It caused waves of up to 4 meters high, fires, power outages and broken dykes. Sandy arrived with winds at speeds of more than 145 kilometers per hour. Cuba, New York and New Jersey were particularly affected.
Image: Reuters
Destructive vortex
Tornadoes however, are non-tropical whirlwinds that can occur anywhere a storm is brewing. Local temperature differences force warm air upwards and cold air down, and a column of warm air rotates upwards at an increasing velocity. Tornadoes are usually only a maximum of 1 kilometer in diameter.
Fastest storms
As the warm air rises, it forms a funnel, the main characteristic of a tornado. Inside the funnel, the speed of the air can be tremendous - up to 500 kilometers per hour. Tornadoes are the fastest whirlwind type of weather phenomenon.
Image: Fotolia/Daniel Loretto
Trail of destruction
A tornado can leave a trail of destruction several kilometers long. In the US Midwest, tornadoes occur several hundred times a year, as dry, cold air from the north hits damp, warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. It's different in other countries - in Germany, for example, tornadoes occasionally occur along the coast.
