Thousands of deaths are anticipated in India and Bangladesh as monster Super Cyclone Amphan -- the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal -- tears into the land border between both countries Wednesday evening with sustained wind speeds in the region of 240 km/h.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts Amphan (pronounced um-pun) will likely hit land near the border of West Bengal and Bangladesh as either an Extremely or Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Wednesday evening. IMD forecasts the super cyclone will cross coasts between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya Islands in Bangladesh.
The equivalent of a super typhoon in the Pacific and a strong Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, Amphan is expected to make landfall near the Indian city of Kolkata with its 14 million people. On Monday evening, Amphan became the the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal when it hit sustained winds of 270 km/h, according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
On Wednesday and Thursday, extremely heavy rains are forecast across Gangetic West Bengal in districts like east and west Medinipur, south and north 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hoogli, and Kolkata. The Bay of Bengal has India to the west and northwest and Bangladesh to the north.
A storm surge rising to a height of five meters above the normal tidal height is forecast across the West Bengal and Bangladesh coast. This huge storm surge will inundate low-lying areas of south and north 24 Parganas, and east and west Medinipur during landfall Wednesday.
The Indian government is warning of massive damage to kutcha houses, severe crop damage, damage to power lines and the disruption of rail and road links along the coastal region.
Indian meteorologists said Amphan is only the second super cyclone to hit the Bay of Bengal since records began. Super cyclone Odisha with its peak wind speed of 260 km/h hit in 1999, killing 10,000 people in India and inflicting $4.4 billion in damage to India's economy.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said he prays for the safety of everyone in the country and assures Indians of all possible support from the central government.
More than 300,000 people have been evacuated from the coastal areas of West Bengal ahead of Amphan's arrival and all steps have been taken to deal with any eventuality, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday. Banerjee said she and other senior state government officials are directly monitoring the situation.
Unfortunately, India and Bangladesh are still struggling against a growing COVID-19 pandemic. As of early Wednesday morning, India was the 11th most infected country in the world and Bangladesh the 28th most. India has 106,475 confirmed cases and 3,302 deaths, according to Worldometer data. Bangladesh has 25,121 cases and more than 1,250 deaths. There were 4.97 million cases worldwide and more than 324,000 deaths.
