West Bengal Chief Minister Mamatha Benerjee appealed to the Centre to view the calamity in a humane way and not politically. She also said South and North Parganas had been ravaged. Howrah has been badly affected as well. But the Sunderbans, Patharpratima, Basanti, Namkhana, Kultali, Baruipur, Sonapur and Bhangar (all in South 24 Parganas) have suffered extensive damage, she said.

Kolkata: The severe Amphan cyclone crossed the land from the Bay of Bengal with wind speed of 185 KMPH on Wednesday. The Amphan cyclone caused to severe damage in Northern Odisha before bearing down on West Bengal, where it claimed between 10 to 12 lives.

The cyclone flattened houses and caste aside trees and electricity poles like match sticks in six and a half hours of monstrous fury that left Kolkata and most of South Bengal pulverized. The cyclone Amphan speared Odisha, Sunderbans region and South six Bengal districts felt the full impact of winds gusting at 155- 165 KMPH along with torrential rains after the Amphan made landfall near Sagar Island around 2.30 pm and entered into Kolkata, about a 100 Km North, around 5 pm.

There were reports of atleast 10- 12 deaths in Kolkata’s neighbouring districts, said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamatha Benerjee. She also said it would take a few days to access the extent of the damage and destruction. One of the deaths was reported in Howrah’s Shalimar and two more in North 24 Parganas Basirhat and Minakha. The cyclone also rose to the ground thousands of buildings in the South Bengal districts including more than 10 in Kolkata. Mobile and broadband networks went on the blink while many Kolkata neighbourhoods were without power till late in the night. Transformers fires were reported across the city.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamatha Benerjee appealed to the Centre to view the calamity in a humane way and not politically. She also said South and North Parganas had been ravaged. Howrah has been badly affected as well. But the Sunderbans, Patharpratima, Basanti, Namkhana, Kultali, Baruipur, Sonapur and Bhangar (all in South 24 Parganas) have suffered extensive damage, she said. The damage and the death toll would have been much worse had we not evacuated more than five lakh people at a day’s notice.

Comparing Amphan with cyclone Alia in 2009, Mamatha said from the control room at Nabanna, Amphan was 110 if Alia was 10. Amphan was the strongest cyclone to hit Kolkata this century and fiercer than Alia in terms of wind speed, said G. K. Das, Director Regional Meteorological Centre. Those living high rise buildings said they had never experienced any things like this, on the 40^th floor, it felt as if we were being shaken by the collar, said CM. some of the window frames got disfigured.