India: 100,000 evacuations approaching a cyclone on the west coast

At least 100,000 residents, including 150 patients with Covid-19, were evacuated to India on Tuesday as a cyclone threatened the west coast of the country of South Asia, the first storm of this magnitude heading towards the Bombay megalopolis in over 70 years.

Officials in the Indian economic capital have called on slum dwellers located by the sea to find safe haven in the face of cyclone Nisarga. It must land on Wednesday in the north of the state of Maharashtra (west), of which Bombay is the capital, with winds of up to 120 km / h.

Read also: The toll of cyclone Amphan exceeds 100 dead in India and Bangladesh

"The inhabitants of the slums (...) located in the low zones were called to evacuate", declared on Twitter the head of the government of the state of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray.

City health officials of 20 million people also evacuated nearly 150 patients with coronavirus from a recently built field hospital to place them in a place "with a covered roof" as a precaution.

Two weeks after Amphan

In the Palghar district, more than 21,000 villagers have been evacuated, media reports said.

Cyclones are extremely rare in Bombay, built facing the Arabian Sea. The last major storm to hit the city dates back to 1948 and killed 12 people and injured more than a hundred.

Indian meteorologists expect heavy precipitation and fear many wind damage to slums huts and power lines. A one to two meter high storm surge could also flood low-lying coastal areas of Maharashtra.

Cyclone Nisarga is also expected to affect neighboring Gujarat, where authorities plan to evacuate nearly 79,000 people living in coastal regions by Wednesday morning, said Gujarat’s rescue chief Harshad Patel, to the press.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, "the temporary shelters have been disinfected and instructions have been given to ensure that physical distance is respected," Arpit Sagar, a Valsad district official, told AFP.

This cyclone appeared two weeks after the powerful cyclone Amphan, which left a hundred dead in eastern India and Bangladesh and caused considerable material damage.

str-amu / stu / amd / glr / mr / fjb