Peering down from his aircraft, Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw on Friday the devastation and flooding caused by the most powerful cyclone to strike India and Bangladesh in more than a decade, before landing in the stricken city of Kolkata.
Peering down from his aircraft, Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw on Friday the devastation and flooding caused by the most powerful cyclone to strike India and Bangladesh in more than a decade, before landing in the stricken city of Kolkata.
At least 96 people died in the two countries when cyclone Amphan swept in from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday most of them in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
The toll is expected to rise as communications are restored and authorities reach villages cut off by blocked and submerged roads, but the evacuation of some three million people before the cyclone struck undoubtedly reduced the number of deaths.
Modi has promised to leave no stone unturned to get West Bengal back on its feet, as the state counts the cost of rebuilding infrastructure and homes, and supporting farmers whose crops and livestock were destroyed by Amphan.
Wearing a face mask as he stepped onto tarmac at the airport in Kolkata, Modi was greeted by the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other officials, all wearing masks.
