Villagers of East Midnapur have lost everything in Cyclone Phailin, which struck the Odisha coast over the weekend on Oct. 15, 2013 in West Bengal, India
Nine people have died, nearly four thousand have been made homeless, and thousands of hectares of crops destroyed in severe floods in the Indian state of West Bengal, due to incessant rain in the aftermath of cyclone Phailin.
“In all, 260 relief camps have been set up to shelter around 81,560 people in the flooded zones,” the state’s disaster management department joint secretary Amit Chowdhury told reporters.
On her Facebook page, West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the neighboring state of Jharkhand and the Damodar Valley Corporation for the deluge, alleging that the floods were exacerbated by the release of water from the Damodar River.