From my personal diary: Amphan amidst Covid-19

The entire world is together in the fight against the pandemic of Covid-19. India has been battling very hard as well. The double whammy of protecting lives and protecting economy has been a major challenge. With a lockdown which has been stretching for 2 months, things have gone from bad to the worst. Amidst all this, we in Bengal were caught offguard against a super cyclone, Amphan earlier this week. 

Since Wednesday morning (20th May 2020 – as if 2 twenties were not enough another 20 got added and took the disaster to another level) ), the dark hanging clouds were seen all around. It started raining soon after and persisted throughout the day. By afternoon, the wind speeds increased. We in Kolkata and Howrah have faced the cyclone Aila a decade back but frankly speaking no one in our lifetimes expected this cyclone (Amphan) to be anything worse that that. As the evening approached, the rains became harder and wind speed kept on increasing. Our worst fears were about to turn true.

Around 5.30 PM, my front door bell rang. I quickly went to check in who was there, only to find that my neighbour called in to inform that there has been a short circuit nearby and they saw one of the transformers catching fire and hence was advising everyone to put off the main switch. I quickly put it off and our flat went dark. Little did we know that for the next 12 hours we will be sitting in that darkness. With the wind speed increasing every minute, things started to go very severe in the next couple of hours. Thanks to a fully charged phone, I was able to keep track of the happenings and the progress of the cyclone via Windy.com. The tracker was predicting that till 10.30 PM, this will continue. By 8 PM, it became worse. The glass windows felt like will fall off any moment. Later I heard the speed of the wind was over 130 KMs/Hour when it stuck Kolkata. Mind also plays with you during such crisis. If I was lying on the bed, it was feeling like the bed was shaking. 

With the gusting wind lashing on our windows and the feeling that anything bad will happen at any time, we heard a shattering sound of glass breaking nearby. Immediately, we realised that the window in the common area of our apartment has broken. How could that break, I was wondering. Inside, I was troubled because if that broke due to the wind, then our glass windows are also in trouble. Nothing could be done that moment because opening the door was out of question. The wind was so strong that standing without any support outside the door was asking for accidents to happen. We then decided to just get into one room and lock everything up and hope for the best. In the meanwhile I was connected with many friends through WhatsAPP and was getting minute by minute updates on whats happening at various areas of Kolkata, Hooghly and Howrah. Some friends were complaining about their windows breaking and some were complaining about other damages related to rooftops etc. Close to 10 PM, few of my friends in Kolkata said that the wind seemed to have reduced speed. That gave me hope because though in my place it was as hard as before, I realised that probably we are getting into safe territory.

Around 11 PM, the gusting winds stopped. There was still a strong wind but that was a normal wind that happens during any kind of depression. We infact opened our windows to check out the surroundings only to be greeted by darkness. It was pitch dark outside. Not a single light could be seen anywhere. With the worst behind us, we decided to call it a day and went to sleep. We knew things would be difficult from the next day because with power not there, it would be difficult to get water and basic necessities would be an issue. But then, what we experienced in the last 4 hours was nothing in front of it and secondly we didn’t know what to expect in the future. I consider myself extremely lucky in hindsight because at around 4.30 AM, the power came back. I awoke and my & my wife went outside to see my area outside our main door to be filled with broken pieces of glass. It was a complete mess. As we cleared the area we remained thankful that nothing untoward happened and atleast the power was back.

In the morning we realised that none of our Vodafone and Airtel connections were working. The Broadband provided by CitiCable was not working as well. Thankfully, we have 2 Jio connections at home and to our surprise we found both working properly. The whole day went with working using those Jio Connections in HotSpot. Personally as the day went, I understood how lucky we were because many of my friends and colleagues went incommunicado. In the morning, as I went out to get milk and vegetables, the scenes were stunning to say the least. The whole of Andul Road was not visible. What was visible were only fallen trees and electric poles. Later in the evening, as I spoke to many people, I realised that people staying in the heart of Kolkata were still without electricity. Thursday came and went in trouble shooting. As Friday dawned, I hoped that my friends and colleagues who were still struggling for basic electricity and water, would get back to normalcy. But alas, nothing happened of that sort. Even as I write this, various places which are bordering the districts of North and South 24 Paraganas are still without electricity. There is complete chaos in many areas with people losing their patience. 

As I write this, I realise that Bengal has not seen a cyclonic storm of this kind for more than 250 years. We in the city areas are struggling to get water and electricity, I can’t even imagine the struggle that people in remote districts of North and South 24 Paragans are going through. I have many colleagues from those areas and they are yet to get electricity. To face a disaster of this kind in itself is a big challenge but to face it on top of Covid-19 has thrown off the disaster recovery system as well. Lack of labour due to Covid-19 is being faced by the civic authorities. People like me who are probably about 25% must consider ourselves very lucky that we not only escaped unharmed physically but also we could continue working in a relative normal manner amidst this catastrophe. Just a couple of hours back few of my friends and colleagues got their electricity back after 72 hours. There are still multiple people who are yet to get that. We are supposed to maintain social distancing due to the Government orders in place for Covid 19 but I wonder how will people lock themselves up at home when there is no power and water.

Its been 3 days and the Government is telling that they would need another few days to get the city life back to normal. The people who lives in villages would have been ruined for life. How will the Government get them back to the feet would be a challenge in itself. Covid-19 already ruined the economy, Cyclone Amphan ensured that Bengal is pushed further back. With Covid-19 cases rising the Government has a very big problem in hand. I hope that things get better soon.

There have been a few interesting incidents that happened amongst the fury of Cyclone Amphan, which I plan to pen down individually in the coming days.

Till then, please keep safe and I pray to God for the health and well being of all.

Take Care!

Share this...

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin