Cyclone Yaas kills nine in India, thousands homeless

THOUSANDS of people were homeless Thursday (27) after a cyclone battered Covid-ravaged India and neighbouring Bangladesh, killing nine people including four children.

Cyclone Yaas ripped through the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Wednesday (26) packing gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph) and whipping up tidal surges in neighbouring West Bengal state and Bangladesh even though they were not directly in its path.

Relief workers delivered food and water to people marooned in 124 villages in Odisha, the state's top bureaucrat Suresh Mahapatra said. At least two people had died in the state.

Barely a week after Cyclone Tauktae claimed at least 155 lives in western India, Cyclone Yaas forced the evacuation of more than 1.5 million people in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said more than 300,000 homes were destroyed.

"The water level in the sea and rivers started to swell to over three to four metres (nine to 12 feet) above the normal level and breached embankments in 135 places," Banerjee said.

"Thousands of people are still marooned. We have set up 14,000 cyclone centres to provide shelter to the homeless," she said.

Authorities in Bangladesh reported flooding of villages due to heavy rains and tidal surges. Three people were dead, two by drowning and a third who was hit by a tree, an official at the Disaster Management Agency said.

"I have never seen a tidal surge rising to this level. It flooded many villages and washed away houses. Many people are marooned," Humayum Kabir, an official in the coastal district of Khulna, said.

Yaas had weakened on Thursday to a deep depression as it drove inland over the Indian state of Jharkhand.

Elsewhere on the sub-continent, Nepal was bracing for floods in its plains and landslides in the hills as heavy rains have lashed the country since Wednesday and were forecast to last till Saturday (29).

People living on riverbanks must be alert and climbers should return from the mountains, Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said in a statement.

Cyclones are a regular menace in the northern Indian Ocean but many scientists say they are becoming more frequent and severe as climate change warms sea temperatures.