At least 31 people were killed and about 62 000 left homeless when heavy rains pounded coastal areas of India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal, reports said on Wednesday.
All the deaths occurred in India’s southern Andhra Pradesh state, which bore the brunt of Tuesday’s storms, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said.
The heavy downpours left roads and railway tracks submerged, disrupting road and rail traffic, PTI said, adding that hundreds of trees and electricity poles were uprooted by strong winds.
The Hindi television news channel Aaj Tak said about 50 000 people were left homeless in Andhra Pradesh.
In southern Bangladesh, waves of up to 1,3m swamped some coastal villages and forced about 12 000 people to flee their homes, officials in Dhaka said.
Around 10 000 people took refuge in cyclone shelters near their homes when a levee was breached in a low-lying area of the southern Sandwip island, said Golam Rabbani, head of the Chittagong Red Crescent branch.
Relief officials also evacuated a further 2 000 people from the southern district of Barguna after floodwaters four feet deep inundated their homes, said Shamsul Alam, the district relief officer.
Two trawlers with a total of 20 crew on board capsized. Fourteen men were rescued by another boat although six are still missing, Alam added.
Andhra Pradesh, meanwhile, was bracing for more havoc.
“We are keeping a close watch on the flood situation. The flood threat looms large as Godavari river is in spate,” PTI quoted the state’s Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy as saying.
Rescue teams and Indian Air Force helicopters have been asked to help marooned people. Relief camps have been opened and medical teams pressed into operation, Reddy said.
Storms and cyclones which form over the Bay of Bengal in September and October every year kill hundreds of people and destroy cattle and crops in India’s eastern states and in Bangladesh. – AFP