A NEW STORM SURGE

Amphan’s rapid intensification underlines how cyclones are becoming terrifyingly unfamiliar AKSHIT SANGOMLA NEW DELHI and JAYANTA BASU KOLKATA

BARELY AN hour—that’s what saved the Sundarbans from being washed away on May 20 as Amphan made landfall in this densely populated, ecologically fragile delta of West Bengal. “Strong winds and heavy rains, accompanied by a surge in seawater, raged through the island even before the super cyclone made landfall at 2.30 pm. It continued till 3.30 pm,” recalls Joydeb Das, headmaster of a school at Sagar island. “After an hour’s lull, it started again as Amphan crossed us and headed towards Kolkata. The storm surge was more intense in the second phase,” he says. That was also the time when high tides start returning, causing waves as high as 4.5 m. People were dreading an Aila-like situation when, in 2009, the cyclone’s high-intensity phase coincided with the peak tide, causing seawater to rise 6-7 m, flooding paddy fields with seawater and displacing 2.3 million people. But this time the intensity of Amphan reduced by 7.30 pm, just an hour before peak tide. And a head-on collision was averted.