Cyclone batters Bangladesh after thrashing India
May 4, 2019
Cyclone Fani weakened to a depression as it moved into Bangladesh on Saturday.
It had ripped through India's east coast unleashing torrential rains and gale-force winds as hundreds of thousands of people fled its destructive path.
Local media reported up to 12 fatalities in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, where the "extremely severe" cyclonic storm struck on Friday, while disaster authorities put the death toll at three.
A dozen deaths were reported in Bangladesh.
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Bangladesh evacuations
As the storm moved from India's West Bengal state northeast into Bangladesh it was still packing winds of up to 70 kilometers (45 miles) per hour and dumping heavy rain on the low-lying, densely populated country of 165 million people.
In Bangladesh, more than 1.6 million people were evacuated from vulnerable areas to shelters ahead of the storm, which inundated dozens of villages.
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Indian shelters and recovery
In Odisha, some 1.2 million people were evacuated ahead of the storm on Friday. By Saturday, disaster authorities said they were "on a war footing" to remove debris strewn over roads and restore power, phone and other services.
Extensive damage has been reported from the seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in Fani's path, and in the state capital, Bhubaneswar.
Worst disaster scenario avoided
Fani was the strongest storm to slam into India's east coast since a 1999 cyclone in Odisha killed almost 10,000 people.
Despite destroying thousands of homes across the region and leaving behind a trail of destruction, the death toll from the powerful storm was lower than initially feared.
Experts attributed the low number of deaths to improved early forecasting and a massive evacuation operation in Odisha.
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction praised India for providing early warnings and effective evacuation of people in Odisha that saved many lives.
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