Nine persons were injured and many were rendered homeless as over 200 houses were damaged in a storm that has been lashing three districts in West Bengal since Tuesday night. While around hundred houses were damaged in Howrah district, as many huts were affected in <g data-gr-id="53">North</g> 24 Parganas on Tuesday <g data-gr-id="54">night,</g> while an unspecified number of <g data-gr-id="35">kuchcha</g> houses were damaged in Nadia district on Wednesday morning.
The storm in Howrah wreaked havoc in Chara <g data-gr-id="33">Panchla</g> Badamtala village under the jurisdiction of the <g data-gr-id="34">Panchla</g> police station, destroying houses and rendering around 200 people homeless, uprooting trees and electricity poles, district officials said.
The cyclone, accompanied by heavy rain, damaged around 80 houses, destroyed 20 others and injured nine persons. The condition of two victims is stated to be critical, officials said.
Tin roofs of some houses were flown almost 1 km away, an official of the local panchayat said, adding that tarpaulin sheets and dry food items was sent to the village on Tuesday night.
The homeless have taken shelter in an under-construction hostel and factories, the panchayat official said. In North 24 Parganas, over 100 huts were damaged in four wards of Habra Municipality, Food Minister and local MLA <g data-gr-id="32">Jyotipriya</g> Mullick said.
The affected people, the number of whom was not specified, were sent to relief camps. Mullick said train services in Sealdah-Bangaon section was also affected as uprooted trees fell on tracks during the storm.
Meanwhile, an unspecified number of houses were damaged at Nagar Ukhra under Haringhata police station in Nadia district in a storm this morning, SDO (Kalyani) Swapan Kumar Kundu said. The number of people affected was also not immediately known, Kundu said.