Cyclone Amphan: Kolkata airport flooded, all flight operations suspended
1 min read 21 May 2020, 12:22 PM ISTLarge portions of the Kolkata Airport have been left flooded after the cyclone Amphan hit the city yesterdayAmphan, a Thai name means sky, is the most severe storm in the Bay of Bengal since the Odisha super cyclone of 1999
PremiumKOLKATA : The extremely severe cyclone Amphan that has left at least 12 people dead has left behind a trail of destruction behind at the Kolkata airport. Scenes from the Kolkata airport showed the damage left behind as large airliners stood in a river of water with facilities damaged.
Cargo and evacuation flight operations at the Kolkata airport remain suspended since yesterday.
With landlines severed and no electricity for hours as the people managed through the raging storm, many tweeted photos of destruction to property, waterlogging right inside their kitchen as they paddled through pools of water. A taxi stand in Maniktala was completely submerged. End of Days-kind of scenes were witnessed as wind at 185 kmph blew through the railings of the iconic Howrah Bridge.
Streets in Kolkata were waterlogged, trees uprooted and houses damaged due to strong winds and heavy rain as Amphan crossed West Bengal-Bangladesh coast between Digha and Hatiya Islands, Bangladesh across Sunderbans between 3.30 and 5.30 pm on Wednesday.
This is the most devastating cyclone that struck the city in centuries, some wondered since the 1737 when the Calcutta cyclone killed many, while others said nothing like this have they crossed in the past few decades. Houses were flattened, massive number of trees uprooted as many feared damage to iconic structures in the city as well.
Amphan has now moved north-northeastwards with a speed of 27 kilometres per hour during the past six hours, and further weakened into a "cyclonic storm" and lay centred on Thursday over Bangladesh, the India Meteorological Department said in its bulletin.
More than 5 lakh people have been evacuated in West Bengal and 1,58,640 people in Odisha in view of Cyclone Amhpan, said SN Pradhan, chief of National Disaster Response Force.
