CNN reports that India has been hit, amid the coronavirus crisis in the country, by the strongest storm on record to reach its west coast.

Tropical Cyclone Tauktae made landfall on Monday night in Gujarat. The state was hit with maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour. According to the Indian Meteorological Department it had, by Tuesday morning, weakened from an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” to a “severe cyclonic storm.”

At least 26 people across the coastal states of Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra were killed, from drowning at sea, collapsed houses, lightning strikes and other accidents as a result of Tauktae. Trees and power lines have been downed by ferocious winds, while highways were flooded by heavy rains.

Hundreds of thousands were evacuated from low-lying areas this week, among them covid patients, as the region braced for the cyclone’s arrival. According to CNN, in Mumbai, 580 patients from makeshift care centres were moved to various hospitals at the weekend. Gujarat’s chief minister, Vijay Rupani, said more than 200 000 people have been evacuated from coastal areas, and almost 2 500 villages lost power. Tauktae has impacted the pandemic relief effort, with power supply to 100 of Gujarat’s 400 hospitals having been interrupted. Meanwhile, backup generators failed at four hospitals, leaving them without electricity. Further, according to CNN, vaccinations have been suspended across Gujarat.

In Kerala and Karnataka thousands of people are seeking refuge in relief camps, their homes having been damaged by the extreme weather.

Udaya Regmi, South Asia head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said, “This cyclone is a terrible double blow for millions of people in India whose families have been struck down by record Covid infections and deaths.” Meanwhile, a curfew which had been scheduled to end on Tuesday, imposed across 36 cities in Gujarat as part of Covid restrictions, has now been extended for three more days due to the cyclone.

Umm Muhammed Umar