Hundreds of huts were flattened after a storm slammed into the eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Saturday bringing heavy rains, a state minister said.
West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said the storm with winds gusting up to 75 kilometers (46 miles) per hour had hit the Sagar Islands off West Bengal's coast before blowing in a northeasterly direction towards neighboring Bangladesh.
"Roughly 250 huts have been razed to the ground by high-speed winds in the coastal belt. The worst destruction has taken place in North-24 Parganas where 115 mud huts have been flattened. Despite the damage, there are no casualties," said Dasgupta.
"We had taken the precaution of evacuating people living along the coastal districts after a depression formed in the Bay of Bengal off Calcutta. And that safety measure has limited the fall-outs," he added.
Dasgupta said an alert sounded earlier Saturday in the coastal and low-lying areas of South 24-Parganas, North-24 Parganas, Calcutta, Howrah, Nadia and Midnapore districts would remain for the next 24 hours.
A red alert was also sounded at Calcutta's Hooghly Docks.
"We have reminded fishermen that it is not safe to venture out to sea and they should be careful till Sunday night," Dasgupta said.
Calcutta's meteorological office director R.N. Goldar said the storm had caused the Hooghly river, which runs through Calcutta, to rise by 1.5 meters (4.9 feet). The city is protected by embankments.
A number of embankments at Patharpratima, Gosaba, Sagar Islands, Namkhana and Bakhali districts in West Bengal had also developed cracks with the storm dumping water in the swollen rivers.
Heavy monsoon floods in West Bengal have claimed more than 1,000 lives this year -- CALCUTTA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
