India and Bangladesh are preparing for the arrival of one of the worst cyclones in recent decades which, according to forecasts, is expected to break down in the next few hours on the Gulf of Bengal, in the center of the Ganges delta, on the border between the two countries. Millions of people have been evacuated as a precaution: in Bangladesh one and a half million farmers and fishermen from the coastal villages of Sundarbans; in India, according to a person in charge of Civil Protection, 450 thousand residents, 300 thousand in West Bengal and another 150 thousand in the Odisha are now in the protection structures. The fear of coronavirus infection however, it complicated the evacuation operations: many refused to move, fearing the overcrowding and the inevitable excessive proximity in the anticyclone shelters.
And in Bangladesh the first victim is recorded : a volunteer from the local Red Cross, drowned this morning in the district of Kulna. This was announced by Nurul Islam Khan, an organization manager. The volunteer lost his life after the gusts of wind overthrew the boat from which he was coordinating the evacuation of the inhabitants of a coastal village near Kalapara. His equipment, rubber boots and a heavy wax, prevented him from swimming.