Amphan destruction in WB, unprecedented, unheard of

Kolkata, 21 May:  Altogether 80 people were killed and scores of trees and lamp posts uprooted as  Super cyclone Amphan has left a trail of catastrophic destruction and deaths in several Districts of South Bengal last night with an unprecedented loss to millions of people.

After getting the sense of the extent of devastation after the daybreak this morning, people in every locality in the city and elsewhere in South Bengal, particularly in four coastal districts are left awestruck and speechless at the fury of this rare natural calamity in this part of the world..

Though it will take a long time for the West Bengal government to access the exact loss of life and damage of property, according to preliminary reports  80 lives have lost, including 19 in Kolkata alone, under the severe impact of Amphan with scores of others sustaining injuries as uprooted trees and light posts fell on them.

As it might take at least about a week for any agency to judge the extent of damage and devastation caused by Amphan In terms of loss of property,  according to a rough estimate in all likelihood it would run into several thousand crores of rupees.

Amphan, the most severe super cyclone that hit the city and all four coastal districts of South Bengal comprising South and North  24 Parganas and East and West Midnapore last evening with an unprecedented fury and wind speed of over 185 km per hour, not experienced in this part of the world for over two decades now,  made its landfall at a place between Digha in East Midnapore and Hatia in Bangladesh, as predicted by the local weather office, and remained active for the next four to five hours accompanied by heavy to very heavy rain everywhere causing .massive destruction everywhere.

Though Kolkata is situated about 200 km from the nearest coastlines of Bay of Bengal,  unprecedented damage was also caused to the city and its residents both in terms of loss of life and destruction of property on one hand and uprooting of trees and light posts and damaging of houses on the other.

As the severity of the super cyclone continued till midnight last night since the afternoon before moving on to Bangladesh, the amount of damage and destruction could not be realised last night. But in the morning today the extent of damage could only be seen to believe with no one having such experience of seeing the loss of life and property because of the fury of nature for a long time.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who monitored the routes and movement of Amphan and its severity from the Control room set up at state Secretariat Nabanna all through the night along with all top state government officials, described the situation as unprecedented and unheard of.

” I have no words to describe the loss of life and the extent of damage,” she said and regretted that everything was lost. I do not know how to withstand the dual blow at the current juncture when the state was also facing the danger of COVID-19, she said.

The bodies of two youths were found floating in the waterlogged streets at Parnashree area here this morning and it was believed that both of them died because of electrocution in the accumulated rainwater.

 Similarly, the bodies of a mother and her young son were found in their thatched house after a massive tree fell on it at Regent Park area in South Kolkata, while a teenage girl was killed in house collapse because of strong wind and accompanying heavy rain at Bantra in neighbouring  Howrah district. Similarly, more people died in Behala, Burrabazar, Beniapukur and Girish Park areas in the city.

Amphan has also caused huge damage to the standing crops in thousands of acres of land in all coastal districts and the farmers estimated their loss amounted to several crores of rupees in each district.

Meanwhile, after taking stock of the situation Chief minister Mamata Banerjee convened an emergency meeting of her Task Force later today comprising top bureaucrats of all departments besides the state Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police and the City Police Commissioner to understand the extent of damage and the future course of action on top priority basis to restore normalcy at the earliest.