Remal weakened into a cyclonic storm on Monday morning, sustaining wind speeds of 80-90 kph, following landfall around midnight of Sunday, the Met department said.
The department said that the weather system, which lay 150 km northeast of Sagar Island at 5.30 am, brought torrential rain and moved towards northeast to weaken further into a cyclonic storm.
Remal is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal ahead of this year’s monsoon season, which runs from June to September. The cyclone was named Remal (meaning sand in Arabic) by Oman, according to a system of naming cyclones in the Indian Ocean region.
It lashed Bangladesh’s coastlines, levelling thousands of homesteads, smashing seawalls, and flooding scores of villages and towns along the south-western shorelines.
Bangladesh’s junior minister for disaster management and relief, Mohibur Rahman, said that 10 persons were killed in the official count so far, while the storm entirely damaged over 35 households and affected over 3.75 million people.
However, according to most media tally, the toll had reached 16, as details of the damage continued to be reported from coastlines.
Officials and journalists in coastal areas said that of those deceased, some drowned while others were crushed when their houses collapsed.
One person was washed away in the town by a storm surge while returning home to bring his sister and aunt to a shelter
Another person died in Satkhira after falling as he ran for cover during the storm.
In Mongla, a trawler sank, leaving two people, including a child, missing.
The Met office said that after ravaging the south-western coastlines, the “severe cyclone” weakened into a storm but continued to cause heavy downpours in most parts of Bangladesh, including Dhaka, which also suffered from electricity disruptions.
Power Ministry officials said that nearly 3 million people in Bangladesh were without electricity. Residents claimed their mobile phone services were inoperative as the devices could not be recharged.
Coastal areas experienced waves as high as 5 to 6 ft, exacerbating the destruction, according to the Met office.
Meanwhile, nearly 29,500 houses in 24 blocks and 79 municipal wards, mostly in the south coastal areas of West Bengal, were partially or entirely damaged by the cyclone, a state government official said on Monday.
Six persons — one in Kolkata, two women in South 24 Parganas district, one in Panihati in North 24 Parganas district and a father-son duo in Memari in Purba Medinipur — lost their lives due to the cyclone.
Over 2,140 trees were uprooted, and about 1,700 electric poles fell in various parts of the state, he added.
Initial assessments indicate that out of the damaged houses, 27,000 suffered partial damage, while 2,500 were completely destroyed. The official cautioned that these figures might change as evaluations are ongoing, with data collection and damage estimation still in progress.
The administration had shifted 2,07,060 people to 1,438 safe shelters, he said, adding currently there are 77,288 people.
“In all, 341 gruel kitchens being operated at the moment. We have distributed 17,738 tarpaulins to the affected people in the coastal and low-lying areas,” he added.
The affected areas included Kakdwip, Namkhana, Sagard Island, Diamond Harbour, Fraserganj, Bakkhali and Mandarmani.
Coastal regions bore the brunt of cyclone Remal’s fury, with significant infrastructural damage reported in both West Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh, where winds reached speeds of up to 135 kph.
Torrential rains in the wake of a powerful cyclone caused the collapse of a quarry in India’s Mizoram state killing 12 people, government officials said on Tuesday.
“So far 12 bodies have been found, we are looking for more,” deputy commissioner of Aizawl district Nazuk Kumar told AFP.
Rescue efforts in the quarry were being hampered by “heavy rains”, police director general Anil Shukla said, NDTV news network reported.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma offered compensation to families of the victims of the “landslide due to Cyclone Remal”.
“I pray for the success of rescue and relief operations and wish a speedy recovery of the injured,” India’s President Droupadi Murmu said on social media.
In Mizoram, several highways and key roads were disrupted by landslides. All schools were shut and government employees were asked to work from home.
India’s weather office has issued warnings of extremely heavy rainfall across Mizoram and other northeastern states on Tuesday.
In India’s neighbouring Assam state, one person was killed and heavy rains had cut the power supply, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a statement.
The cyclone made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighbouring India on Sunday evening with fierce gales and crashing waves.
Overall, at least 38 people died in the cyclone or storms in its wake.
In India, eight people died in West Bengal state, officials said Tuesday, updating an earlier toll of six, taking the total killed in the country to at least 21.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, which bore the brunt of the cyclone that made landfall on Sunday, at least 17 people died, according to the disaster management office and police.Philippine authorities said at least seven people had been killed by tropical storm Ewiniar, which hit the country on the weekend, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Tuesday that search and rescue efforts would continue.
Ewiniar brought strong winds and heavy rain in provinces south of the capital, shutting down airports and seaports and disrupting power supply.
The storm was heading toward east coast of Japan on Tuesday, with sustained winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour (80 mph) and gustiness of up to 160 kph (100 mph).
A 14-year-old girl was confirmed dead in southern Misamis Oriental province after a tree fell on a parked vehicle she was boarding. Another student was injured, the national disaster agency said in a report.
In Quezon province, east of the capital, six people were reported dead, police major Elizabeth Capistrano told DWPM radio station. Among the deceased were two men, aged 56 and 22, who drowned, and a 39-year-old man who was hit by a falling tree.
Marcos, speaking ahead of a state visit to Brunei, said the storm affected nearly 27,000 people, and disrupted operations of three airports and nine seaports over the weekend.
Ewiniar was the first tropical storm to hit the Philippines this year. The Southeast Asian nation sees an average of 20 storms annually, often resulting in heavy rains, strong winds, and deadly landslides.
