Cyclone Amphan has hit the coastline late yesterday afternoon close to the Indian town of Digha, on the eastern coast of India, along the Bangladesh border. Tens of thousands of residents were relocated as an alert to the regional storm system as the hurricane marched through the Bay of Bengal after the weekend, increasing it. Millions of people sought refuge or making their way to specially built government buildings.
Thousands of people have been evacuated as a precaution. The storm has been pounding Kolkata, which sits on the low-lying coastal delta. The death toll has risen to 14 as a result of Cyclone Amphan, with two children thought to be among the dead. The Category 2 storm has sustained winds of above 160 kph as it moves towards the coast.
Local estimates suggest the damage to the hurricane seems to be much less than was originally expected. Aid agency based in Cox's Bazar, home to 60,000 Bangladeshis plus up to one million refugees from Rohingya, says that rain was extremely heavy. This will become apparent this week when officials are able to better assess the damage and gather reports from outlying areas. At the beginning of this week the cyclone was identified by regional meteorologists as one of the most dangerous storms in decades.
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