More than 30 killed and over 1 million evacuated as Cyclone Remal lashes South Asia

At least 36 people have died in India and Bangladesh after Tropical Cyclone Remal lashed the area with torrential rain and heavy winds, according to local officials.

At least seven were killed in cyclone-related incidents in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal as of Monday evening, 20 May, Javed Khan, the state’s minister for disaster management, told CNN Tuesday.

Previously, seven deaths were reported in the southern Indian state of Telangana, 12 in the northeast Indian state of Mizoram, and 10 in Bangladesh.

The Indian Meteorological Department on Tuesday said Remal weakened into a depression over east Bangladesh after losing some force earlier on Monday. It caused wide-scale damage in both countries, toppling trees, turning roads into rivers and leaving millions without electricity.

More than 1 million people in India and Bangladesh were evacuated Sunday as the cyclone made landfall near the border of between the two countries.

Authorities said that volunteers and army staff were mobilized to assist with clean-up efforts, and distribute food and water to displaced families.

Remal made landfall roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of the Indian city of Kolkata, packing gusts of up to 135 kilometers per hour (84 miles per hour), and is moving northwards across Bangladesh and its adjoining West Bengal coasts, the Indian Meteorological Department said.

The storm weakened after it hit the coast with wind speeds of up to 115 kilometers per hour (71 mph). Remal is expected to dump more than 89 millimeters (3.5 inches) of rain and bring wind-driven storm surges of 2.5 to 3.7 meters to the coasts of the Bay of Bengal, according to CNN Weather.