Cyclone Amphan has now weakened significantly and moved over to Bangladesh as a cyclonic storm after clobbering West Bengal, leaving at least 80 dead and blowing up shanties, uprooting thousands of trees and swamping low-lying areas.

A major part of Kolkata, home to more than 14 million people, still remains waterlogged. The trail of destruction resulted in uprooting of giant trees, old buildings being damaged and failure of electricity and communication lines.

While electricity and mobile connection were restored in some parts of the state capital, most part of Kolkata still continues to remain without electricity and communication lines. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of the storm, a process made complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to coronavirus, shelter homes were unable to run at full capacity in many places.

West Bengal government said that the estimated loss to the state because of the cyclone Amphan is around Rs 1 lakh crore. CM Mamata Banerjee announced Rs 1000 crore fund for the restoration work required after cyclone Amphan.

“I have never seen such a disaster before,” said West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. She further added that the government would pay the equivalent of ₹2.5 lakh to families who lost a relative in the storm. She also said that almost 99% of South Bengal has been wiped out.

Today, PM Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee together conducted an aerial survey of the areas affected by Amphan, said to be the strongest super cyclone to have made landfall in Bay of Bengal area since 1999. They flew over the areas which have been submerged in water due to incessant rainfall.

Soon after completing the survey, PM Modi announced financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for immediate relief activities, Rs 2 lakh to the kin of deceased family and Rs 50,000 to the injured in cyclone Amphan in the State of West Bengal.