At least 12 people died in India after Cyclone Amphan landed on Wednesday, authorities said.
All reported deaths occurred in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, according to the head of state government Mamata Banerjee.
Banerjee said one of the victims, a girl from the Howrah district, died after a wall in her home collapsed. He did not provide any further details on how the other deaths occurred.
Bangladeshi Oxfam director Dipankar Datta told CNN that thousands of makeshift homes in Bangladesh have been eradicated because of the cyclone. He added that he did not expect the storm to hit the Rohingya refugee camp area near the city of Cox’s Bazaar.
Some background: Cyclone Amphan made landfall near the island of Sagar in West Bengal, India, near the Bangladesh border around 17:00 local time with sustained winds of 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon United States Warning Center, making it equivalent in intensity to a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane.
Heavy rains are expected to cause sudden floods across the region on Thursday morning. Once the storm pushes inward, it will weaken significantly and the storm is expected to clear by Friday.
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