Thousands of people were homeless Thursday after a cyclone batteredCovid-ravaged India and neighbouring Bangladesh, killing nine peopleincluding four children.

Cyclones are a regular menace in the northern Indian Ocean but manyscientists say they are becoming more frequent and severe as climate changewarms sea temperatures.

Barely a week after Cyclone link Tauktaeclaimed at least 155 lives in western Indialink, Cyclonelink Yaas forced the evacuation of morethan 1.5 million people in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha.

The storm hit on Wednesday with torrential rain and howling winds gustingup to 155 kilometres (96 miles) an hour, equivalent to a category twohurricane.

Waves the size of double-decker buses pounded the shore and swamped townsand villages along the coastline, exacerbated by a higher-than-normal tidebecause of a full moon.

Prabir Maity, a resident of a village close to the sea, told AFP: “I havelost my home, everything.”

Two people died in West Bengal, two in Odisha and five in neighbouringBangladesh, officials said.

In southern areas of Bangladesh, although not in Yaas’s direct path, thesea smashed through water defences and inundated thousands of homes,officials said.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said more than 300,000 homeswere destroyed.

“The water level in the sea and rivers started to swell to over three tofour metres (nine to 12 feet) above the normal level and breachedembankments in 135 places,” Banerjee said.

“Thousands of people are still marooned. We have set up 14,000 cyclonelink centres to provide shelter to thehomeless link,” she said.

Low-lying areas of state capital Kolkata were also flooded after theHooghly river rose.

West Bengal disaster management minister Javed Ahmed Khan told AFP thatrescue efforts were being “complicated” by villagers refusing to leavetheir homes because of fears about coronavirus.

“Water is everywhere. The situation is very grim,” Arjun Manna, a residentof Kakdwip in the Sunderbans delta and nature reserve area, told AFP byphone.

“The devastation is huge. Most hotels and markets are still inundated. Thesea is still roaring,” Diprodas Chatterjee from the Hoteliers’ Associationin the seaside town of Digha told AFP.

“Employees who stayed back are telling a grim story,” he said.

Milan Mondal, a senior forest official, told AFP that the high waves hadalso swamped a crocodile breeding centre and tiger reserve project area inthe Sunderbans.

“At least five deer and a wild boar were rescued by forest officials,” hesaid. “We are afraid that many crocodiles have left the breeding centre.”

In Odisha hundreds of trees were uprooted, some bringing down power lines,relief official Pradeep Kumar Jena said.

Some thatched homes were also damaged during the storm, buttelecommunication networks were not affected, he added.

Yaas has since moved inland towards the state of Jharkhand, easing to adeep depression but bringing heavy rains. -APP/AFP