Tamil Rasigan's video: Amphan Cyclone Damages Survey Powerful Cyclone

The Indian city of Kolkata has been left devastated by the worst cyclone it has seen in 100 years, which swept through India and Bangladesh on Wednesday and killed at least 84 people. Kolkata, home to almost 15 million people, bore the brunt of Cyclone Amphan, which tore roofs off buildings, smashed windows, pulled down trees and pylons and overturned cars. Most of the fatalities were caused by falling trees or electrocution. Millions of people were left without power and telephone connection, and some areas were without drinking water.Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state, of which Kolkata is the capital, said the damage was like “nothing I have seen in my life” and two districts of the city had been “completely devastated. We have to rebuild those districts from scratch.” She said: “Area after area has been ruined. I have experienced a war-like situation today.” Banerjee noted how particularly catastrophic the storm was in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, with people forced to prioritise seeking shelter over efforts to curb the spread of the virus. “We are facing three crises: the coronavirus, the thousands of migrants who are returning home, and now the cyclone,” she said. People in a flooded street in Kolkata People in a flooded street in Kolkata. Photograph: Debarchan Chatterjee/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock Kalipada Haldar, whose shack made from bamboo and plastic sheets was destroyed by Amphan, said he had recently lost his job in a cardboard factory when it closed down as a result of Covid-19 lockdown measures. “For the past two months I have been without a job. Somehow I have been running my family with the small amount of rations I get from the government. I was already in hardship after the factory was closed. Now the cyclone has destroyed my house, doubling my miseries,” he said. Haldar said he would need at least 15,000 rupees (about £160) to rebuild his shack, and he despaired at where he would find the money with no jobs available. “The lockdown killed my ability to earn my livelihood for my family and forced me to become a virtual beggar dependent on handouts,” he said. “I don’t know why God has been so cruel to me.” The cyclone, classed as a category 3 hurricane, caused storm surges and waves five metres high and wreaked devastation across the Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha, as well as coastal areas of Bangladesh. Show more Searches for survivors in the wreckage continued on Thursday and rescue teams in West Bengal said they had not yet been able to reach the worst-hit areas. Selima Khatun, living in Dhoni village in one of the worst hit districts in West Bengal, North 24 Paraganas, said over 80% of the mud-and-bamboo houses in her village had been destroyed by Amphan. “Many people have taken shelter on the roofs of the concrete houses, which are the only buildings left,” said Khatun. “My family are sheltering on the first floor of our village mosque along with around 100 other people. We are all practically homeless now.” An officer from a control room set up in Kolkata to monitor the impact of Amphan said that with communications disrupted the state government was in the dark about the extent of the damage. “Regular and mobile phone networks have been dysfunctional in the coastal areas following the landfall of Amphan. There is no electricity across vast regions. We have lost touch with the areas since yesterday. We do not have any information about those cut-off areas around Sundarbans and other coastal areas where hundreds of villages are located,” the officer said. In a series of tweets, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, promised all necessary resources would be given to help those affected. “In this challenging hour, the entire nation stands in solidarity with West Bengal. Praying for the wellbeing of the people of the state. Efforts are on to ensure normalcy,” Modi said. The evacuation of 3 million people from their homes – 2.4 million in Bangladesh and more than 500,000 in India – appeared to avert higher casualties. Hundreds of thousands in the region have been left homeless after their brittle shacks and makeshift mud homes were blown away by the storm. There are fears that the region could now become a coronavirus hotbed, with millions housed in shelters. The UN’s office in Bangladesh estimated that 10 million people were affected and 500,000 people may have lost their homes.