Cyclone Amphan: Kolkata Airport Flooded

The Kolkata Airport has been flooded six hours afterCyclone Amphan wreaked havoc leaving many structures damaged. At least 12people died in Bengal as winds at 120 km/hr and heavy rain left a trail ofdevastation.

Visuals from the Kolkata airport showed a floodedtarmac, runways and hangars. In one area, the roof seemed to have caved in.

An aircraft was seen in knee-deep water.

Two hangars have been damaged beyond repair, butthey were unused, according to officials.

All operations have been suspended in the airportexcept the cargo and evacuation flights are operating for now, with passengerflights suspended since March 25, when the country went into lockdown to fightcoronavirus.

Amphan slammed into Bengal around 2.30 pm on Wednesday, uprooting trees, damaging power lines and destroying many buildings in Kolkata and other parts of the state.

"Sarbanash hoye galo (It is acatastrophe)," said Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who remained inher office during the storm.

Ms Banerjee said the impact of Amphan was worse than the coronavirus pandemic. She claimed the cyclone could have caused damage worth Rs 1 lakh crore.

"Area after area has been devastated.Communications are disrupted," said Ms Banerjee , adding that although 5lakh people had been evacuated, state authorities had not entirely anticipatedthe ferocity of the storm.

The cyclone passed mainly over North and South 24Parganas, Midnapore, Hooghly, and Kolkata.

Cyclone Amphan is the fiercest to form over the Bayof Bengal since records began, and the first super cyclone since 1999, whenOdisha was hit by a super cyclone that left nearly 10,000 dead.