12 dead in CYCLONE Amphan as Bengal gets battered by 165 kmph winds.

In the middle of a pandemic, Eastern India states, Bengal, Odisha, braced themselves for the impending Cyclone Amphan. Kolkata was damaged and pummeled by the fury of the cyclone. It devastated the city by shattering windowpanes, destroying power-lines, uprooting iron gates, trees and making the sky scrappers shake. The duration of the cyclone was upwards of six and a half hours. As Amphan raged, people at home were left bruised and battered. Those living on the top floors of high rise buildings were extremely terrified. The cyclonic storm made landfall near Sagar island at 2:30 pm IST and hit Kolkata at around 5 pm IST which is located 100 km away from the landfall. The wind-speed during landfall was around 155-165 kmph with gusts of wind up-to 185 kmph. The wind-speed of the storm was a maximum of 133 kmph in Kolkata, Dum Dum. Around 12 lives have been claimed by the ruthless storm. 

Kolkata Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pointed out that it might take some days to assess the extent of destruction and fatalities. She said, "The damage and death toll would have been much worse had we not evacuated more than 5 lakh people at a day's notice." She also compared Amphan to cyclone Alia in 2009, "If Alia was 10 Amphan is 110".

Six south Bengal districts along with Sunder-bans felt the full impact of Amphan with winds gusting at 155-165 kmph. Assam was affected very less and was spared from the full wrath of the cyclone. GK Das, the director of Regional Meteorological Centre, stated, "Amphan is the strongest cyclone to hit Kolkata this century and is more fierce than Alia in terms of wind-speed."