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by Sam Jahan with Sailendra Sil in Kolkata Agence France Presse KHULNA, Bangladesh (AFP) — The Bay of Bengal’s fiercest cyclone this century was bearing down on millions of people in eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, with forecasts of a potentially devastating and deadly storm surge. Authorities have scrambled to stage mass evacuations away from the path of Amphan, which is only the second “super cyclone” to form in the northeastern Indian Ocean since […]
by Sailendra Sil with Abhaya Srivastava in New Delhi and Shafiqul Alam in Dhaka Agence France Presse KOLKATA, India (AFP) — Millions of people were being moved to safety as one of the fiercest cyclones in years barrelled towards India and Bangladesh on Tuesday, but with evacuation plans complicated by coronavirus precautions. “Amphan” is expected to pack winds gusting up to 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour when it hits eastern India and Bangladesh on […]
PORT VILA, Vanuatu (AFP) — Vanuatu’s rigid coronavirus lockdown is hindering critical relief efforts to rebuild the island country after it was pummelled by Tropical Cyclone Harold, aid agencies said Saturday. Nearly two weeks after the deadly monster storm barrelled through the South Pacific, local media reported that newly homeless families were still sleeping in the open. Australia, New Zealand and China have rushed in emergency aid but distribution has been hampered by strict quarantine […]
SUVA Fiji (AFP) — Tens of thousands of people remain homeless in Vanuatu a week after Tropical Cyclone Harold pummelled the impoverished Pacific nation, smashing houses and destroying crops, aid workers said Tuesday. The cyclone careened through the South Pacific last week, peaking as a Category Five superstorm that gouged a trail of destruction across the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. With aid efforts hampered by coronavirus-related travel restrictions, World Vision said up to […]
NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AFP) — Tropical Cyclone Harold surged back into a scale-topping Category Five storm Thursday as it sideswiped Tonga after leaving a trail of destruction across the South Pacific. The island kingdom declared a state of emergency late Wednesday as the storm bore down, warning of destructive winds and massive sea surges. Police said early Thursday that power had been cut in parts of the country and howling winds were gathering pace amid heavy […]
SUVA, Fiji (AFP) — A deadly Pacific cyclone bore down on Fiji Wednesday after leaving a trail of destruction in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Tropical Cyclone Harold weakened slightly overnight from a scale-topping category five to a four, but was still lashing Fiji with winds of up to 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), forecasters said. The official NaDraki weather service said the cyclone was offshore south of Fiji’s main island Viti […]
PORT VILA, Vanuatu (AFP) — A deadly Pacific cyclone cut off communication links to Vanuatu’s northern islands Tuesday, with aid officials saying they had grave concerns for residents in the remote areas. Tropical Cyclone Harold, which claimed 27 lives when it swept through the Solomon Islands last week, lashed Vanuatu’s northern provinces overnight as a scale-topping category five superstorm. Red Cross Vanuatu secretary general Jacqueline de Gaillande said the cyclone, packing winds of up to […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A tropical cyclone formed off the northwestern coast of Australia Monday, threatening the town of Broome with destructive 125 kilometers (80 miles) per hour winds, meteorologists said. Tropical Cyclone Blake became category one storm with sustained winds of 75 kilometers (47 miles) per hour and was expected to strengthen to a category two early Tuesday when it skirts the town of 14,000 people. The Bureau of Meteorology warned residents to “prepare […]
MAMOUDZOU, France (AFP) — Officials on the small Indian Ocean island of Mayotte said Sunday they had lifted the red alert in place for Cyclone Belna, after it brushed past the French territory. Officials had told islanders to keep off the roads and stay indoors earlier as they declared a red alert in the expectation that the cyclone would hit the island. Island officials have not yet said how much damage the storm caused on […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — The death toll from a major cyclone that hit eastern India and Bangladesh in early May rose to 77 on Monday as anger grew over millions of people still without power and water. Cyclone Fani, the first summer cyclone to hit India’s Bay of Bengal coast in 43 years, made landfall in Odisha state on May 3 packing winds up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour. The winds damaged […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — The death toll from a cyclone that battered India and Bangladesh rose to 42 on Sunday as emergency teams raced to fix water supplies and roads devastated by the storm. Twenty-nine of the dead were in eastern India’s Odisha state and 13 in Bangladesh, officials in the two countries said — a fraction of the casualty numbers seen in past cyclones. Cyclone Fani barrelled into Odisha on Friday, packing winds […]
Cyclone Fani, one of the biggest to hit India in years, barrelled into Bangladesh on Saturday after leaving a trail of deadly destruction in India. Thanks to mass evacuations well ahead of time though, a major human disaster of the kind seen in previous cyclones looked to have been averted. Bangladeshi police said nine people perished even before the eye of the storm crossed the border on Saturday morning. Eight others died in India, press […]
