Kolkata: Cyclone ‘Bulbul’, which barrelled through the coastal districts of West Bengal before hurtling towards Bangladesh, claimed at least 10 lives and affected at least 2.73 lakh families in different parts of the state while claiming two more lives in Odisha, official reports said on Sunday.
The severe cyclonic storm, which brought in its wake heavy rain coupled with gale wind till early Sunday, uprooted hundreds of trees and snapped cables in the city and in the coastal districts of North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, bring life to a near-halt. State Disaster Management minister Javed Khan said that at least 2,473 houses were destroyed and another 26,000 were partially damaged in the cyclone in the coastal districts along the Bay of Bengal, with the fishing towns of Bakkhali and Namkhana being among the worst-affected areas.
He said that while 2.73 lakh families were affected in the storm, 1.78 lakh people were moved to relief camps set up in nine places of the state.
‘Bulbul’ claimed the lives of five persons in separate incidents in North Parganas alone, an official said.
Earlier, on Saturday, even before the cyclone hit the coast, an employee of a renowned club in the city was killed when a branch of a cedar tree fell on him during heavy rain. The minister said that 46,000 tarpaulin sheets were distributed among people whose residences were damaged in the cyclone.
In a tweet, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, she would conduct an aerial survey of the affected areas around Namkhana and Bakkhali in South 24 Parganas.
“Due to the severe cyclonic storm ‘Bulbul’, I have decided to postpone my North Bengal visit in the coming week. Instead, tomorrow I would take an aerial survey of the affected areas around Namkhana and Bakkhali.”
“Later I would take a meeting at Kakdwip with administration to review relief and rehabilitation measures of the cyclone-affected people. I am also planning to visit the cyclone-affected areas of Basirhat of North 24-Parganas on 13 November, 2019,” Banerjee tweeted on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the situation arising out of the cylone and assured the state of all assistance to deal with the calamity. “Reviewed the situation in the wake of cyclone conditions and heavy rain in parts of Eastern India,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
Two killed in Odisha
Meanwhile, heavy rain and high-velocity winds triggered by cyclone ‘Bulbul’ claimed at least two lives and wreaked havoc in most parts of coastal Odisha, officials said. A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel was seriously injured during restoration operation in Bhadrak district, Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Shyama Bhakta Mishra said.
The cyclone also caused extensive damage to crops in the coastal districts, leaving farmers in the lurch, the officials said.
Though it skipped Odisha and made landfall between West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts on Saturday, heavy downpour and gale-force winds left a trail of destruction, damaging hundreds of houses, uprooting trees, electric poles and affecting telecom towers in the state, they said. (PTI)
