At least 33 people have died and a hundred others were missing in western India on Tuesday, May 18, after Cyclone Tauktae hit, which caused local suspensions of vaccination against Covid, in this devastated country by the epidemic.
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93 people were still missing after the sinking of their boat off Bombay, capital of the state of Maharashtra, announced the Indian Navy whose two ships and helicopters are helping in the search.
The barge, with 273 people on board, was servicing oil rigs and was adrift on Monday as strong winds hit India's west coast.
A total of 180 passengers were rescued in "
extremely difficult sea conditions,
" the Navy said on Twitter.
Relief operations were to continue throughout the day, according to the Defense Ministry.
Navy helicopters were able to rescue 137 other people who were adrift in another boat.
Cyclone Tauktae, which caused the evacuation of more than 200,000 people, made landfall in Gujarat on Monday with gusts of up to 185 km / hour, according to the Indian meteorological department. Seven new victims were recorded, bringing the death toll to 33 on Tuesday, most of those killed in the collapse of houses or walls, according to the head of government of Gujarat Vijay Rupani. Among the victims, a child crushed by a collapsing wall, a teenage girl killed when a roof collapsed or an 80-year-old woman killed by a fall from an electric pole.
More than 16,500 houses were damaged, 40,000 trees were uprooted and nearly 6,000 villages were without electricity.
"
We have no power or phone,
" a local official in Amreli coastal district Aayush Oak told AFP.
The tropical storm, the most powerful to hit the region in decades, has claimed victims in the states of Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
"
I had never seen such a devastating cyclone in Bombay
", testifies Anand Shinde, a resident of the megalopolis, "
people have suffered a lot of damage, they will have to fight to get out of it.
"
Hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee
Winds and rains, with formidable force, swept through the western part of the country whose coasts were submerged, turning the streets into rivers and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
Sea level rose three meters along the coast, the weather services for the coastal town of Diu said, with winds of 133 km / h.
Tauktae strikes India as the country faces a second wave of Covid-19 of great violence.
Hospitals are overcrowded, health workers are exhausted, oxygen and medicines are lacking.
India, which has 1.3 billion inhabitants, on Tuesday counted 4,329 deaths, a new record, and 263,533 cases in 24 hours, bringing the total toll to more than 25 million cases and 278,719 deaths.
Gujarat, which has officially recorded 9,000 deaths from the virus, has suspended the vaccination campaign for two days.
Bombay did the same for a day.
Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated in the state where all Covid-19 patients hospitalized within a radius of five kilometers from the coast have been displaced.
A risk of a tidal wave of one to two meters in some areas was reported by authorities, as the cyclone sank into the land and weakened slightly.
Read also: India: vaccination slows as the Covid-19 epidemic accelerates
Experts say the Arabian Sea is experiencing more severe cyclones than in the past, due to global warming. "
The Arabian Sea is one of the fastest warming basins among the world's oceans
," Roxy Mathew Koll of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology told AFP. In May 2020, more than 110 people were killed during the passage of the powerful Cyclone Amphan which devastated eastern India and Bangladesh.
