More than two million people in at-risk areas in two countries were moved into shelters

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 15 people in the eastern state of Odisha, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday, where more than a million people have been moved to safety.

After hitting land, Cyclone Fani lost some of its power and was downgraded to a deep depression by the India Meteorological Department.

A storm surge still breached embankments to submerge dozens of villages on Bangladesh’s low-lying coast, a disaster ministry official in Dhaka said.

About 1.2 million people living in the most vulnerable districts in Bangladesh had been moved to 4,000 shelters. The storm destroyed several houses in the Noakhali district, where a two-year-old child was killed and about 30 people were injured, a local official told Reuters.

In India, authorities were assessing the casualties and damage caused by Fani, which had spent days building power over the northern reaches of the Bay of Bengal before tearing into Odisha.

Indian media reported that at least 12 people died across the state, most as a result of falling trees. A mass evacuation of more than a million people in the 24 hours before the tropical cyclone made landfall is likely to have averted a greater loss of life.

Play Video 0:37 Cyclone Fani: ferocious winds leave trail of destruction in eastern India – video

The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, sustained extensive damage as winds gusting up to 124 mph (200 km/h) tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines and uprooted trees on Friday.

“Destruction is unimaginable. Puri is devastated,” Odisha’s special relief commissioner, Bishnupada Sethi, told Reuters, adding that 116 people were reported injured across the state.

Video footage taken from an Indian navy aircraft showed extensive inundation in areas around Puri, with wide swathes of land submerged.

At least six people died in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s state capital, where fallen trees blocked roads and the electricity supply is still to be fully restored.

Ashok Pattnaik, the director of Capital hospital, one of the largest state-run hospitals in Bhubaneswar, said four people were pronounced dead on arrival on Friday and two on Saturday. “All are cyclone-related,” he said.

Bhubaneswar airport sustained considerable damage, but India’s aviation ministry said it would reopen on Saturday afternoon.

Shelters were set up in schools and other safe buildings to accommodate the evacuees, who included scores of tourists.

Neighbouring West Bengal state escaped substantial damage. Authorities moved nearly 45,000 people to safer locations.

The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal can last from April to December. In 1999 a super-cyclone battered the coast of Odisha for 30 hours, killing more than 10,000 people. But since then, technology advances have helped weather forecasters track the cyclones more accurately, giving authorities more time to prepare, and a mass evacuation of nearly a million people saved thousands of lives in 2013.