Cyclone Bulbul: Seven dead, one lakh houses damaged after storm lashes West Bengal; toll rises to 12 in Bangladesh

The death toll from Cyclone Bulbul rose to 12 in Bangladesh and five fishermen are still missing, government officials told Reuters on Monday. Most of the victims had refused to evacuate and died due to falling trees, said Enamur Rahman, Bangladesh’s junior minister for disaster management and relief. In West Bengal, seven people were killed, Javed Khan, the state’s minister for disaster management told reporters on Sunday evening. About one lakh houses and standing crops have been damaged. According to officials, electricity has been restored, telecom services are expected to be restored shortly in most affected areas in the state. Meanwhile, in Odisha, though there have been no reports of casualties so far, but extensive damage to standing crops in over two lakh hectares has been reported. Electricity and piped water supply services in Odisha, which were affected by severe cyclone Bulbul, are expected to be completely restored in several districts of Odisha by 12 November, Office of the Special Relief Commissioner said on Sunday. The deep depression weakened into a depression over southeast Bangladesh and adjoining south Tripura at 05:30 am on Monday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). It will weaken into a low during the next six hours, IMD stated in its latest update over cyclone ‘Bulbul’. The deep depression over coastal Bangladesh and neighbourhood lay centred at 5:30 pm on Sunday about 170 km east-northeast of Sunderban National Park. According to IMD, the deep depression weakened into a depression over southeast Bangladesh and adjoining Tripura at 05:30 am on Monday morning. It will weaken into a low during the next six hours said IMD. The deep depression over coastal Bangladesh and neighbourhood lay centred at 5:30 pm on Sunday about 170 km east-northeast of Sunderban National Park, reports weather agency.

India Meteorological Department (IMD): The deep depression weakened into a depression over southeast Bangladesh & adjoining south Tripura at 05:30 am today. It will weaken into a low during next 6 hours. #BulbulCyclone pic.twitter.com/wAC5KHnxXv

— ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2019

A meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), was held on Monday at the Cabinet Secretariat, New Delhi, to review Relief and Restoration work in the aftermath of Cyclone ‘Bulbul’ over West Bengal and Odisha. The NCMC has assured central assistance in terms of additional stocks of food items, drinking water, health services as well as restoration of telecom and power services to affected areas. Central teams would be visiting the affected areas in both states within this week to take stock of the damages, said NCMC. Both the states have indicated that they are carrying out detailed assessment after which they may seek specific central assistance if required. Other concerned central agencies including NDRF, Coast Guard etc have also been fully involved in rescue and relief operations. [caption id=“attachment_7630341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Cyclone Bulbul made landfall in West Bengal. PTI[/caption] Some 30 people were injured and around 6,000 homes were partially or fully damaged, Bangladeshi authorities said. Two fishing boats have not yet returned and relatives have been unable to contact the roughly 36 men on board, added Anwar Uddin, a local public representative in the southern Bhola district. No major damage was immediately reported in camps in southeast Bangladesh where hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar are living. India’s meteorological department said the cyclone was expected to weaken but warned fishermen not to venture into the sea for the next 12 hours. Some two million people from all of Bangladesh’s 13 coastal districts huddled in about 5,558 shelters on Saturday night. Outside, wind speeds rose to between 100 and 120 km per hour (62-75 mph), and some low-lying coastal areas were flooded. Wind speeds have now come down to between 70 and 80 kph , authorities said. “It may take a couple of days to get a normal situation,” Enamur Rahman, junior minister for disaster management and relief, told Reuters. About 1,200 predominantly domestic tourists were stuck on St. Martin’s Island, part of the Cox’s Bazar district, Rahman said. “All of them will be rescued,” he said. The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal can last from April to December. In 1999 a super-cyclone battered the coast of India’s Odisha state for 30 hours, killing 10,000 people.