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Tropical storm leaves India 12D dead, thousands homeless

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people need shelter, food and water after a tropical storm swept through impoverished villages in eastern India, killing 120 people, said on Thursday, aid workers and officials.

With maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour, “Nor #39, wester,” a weather pattern that develops in the Bay of Bengal during the summer, thousands of homes crushed , destroyed crops and killed hundreds of livestock animals when it struck late on Tuesday.

Aid agencies and officials are still assessing the damage in the worst affected states of Bihar and West Bengal, but initial indications suggest that the destruction is vast and it takes a lot of help.

“The damage is very large and the Government was hit by a tragedy of these dimensions,” said Devesh Chandra Thakur, Minister of disaster management for Bihar, where 72 were confirmed dead.

Populations that inhabit the affected areas bordering Bangladesh, are mostly poor, living less than a dollar a day, make their living as farmers or manual labor.

Television footage showed uprooted trees on top of collapsed mud and straw huts, and iron sheets corrugated roof fell off.

More than 100,000 houses were partially damaged or completely destroyed hundreds of hectares of crops such as rice, corn, mangoes and bananas have also been destroyed and livestock animals are killed in the hundreds, officials and aid workers.

United Nations in India said that there was no formal call for external assistance and added that the Government has begun distribution of relief items such as dried food, tarpaulins and clothing to affected populations.

However, international aid agencies working in the area say more humanitarian aid will be required within next few days.

“We are currently making a rapid assessment of affected areas to provide necessary assistance,” said Ray Kancharia, director of emergency non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children.

“The first days are critical, people desperately need a shelter of some kind like food and water,” he said.

(Editing by Derek Caney Spanish)