Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday saw for himself the damage wreaked by a powerful cyclone, pledging an extra 10 billion rupees (US$144.2 million) to the hardest-hit state of Odisha, where hundreds of thousands returned home from shelters.
Cyclone Fani killed at least 34 people in India, destroying houses, ripping off roofs and knocking down electricity poles.
Early warnings from meteorologists helped authorities evacuate more than 1 million people from low-lying towns, minimizing the death toll from the strongest storm in 43 years to pummel India’s east coast.
Photo: Bloomberg
Modi flew by helicopter over towns and villages where thousands of rescue workers and volunteers were sifting through the debris.
“Before the cyclone, we had released [3.81 billion rupees] to Odisha and we will now give an additional [10 billion rupees] for relief and rebuilding efforts of the state,” Modi said.
The prime minister said that his administration would work closely with the state government to rebuild infrastructure.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has demanded a long-term package worth 170 billion rupees from the central government to build disaster-resistant infrastructure, the state government said.
Modi, who is busy campaigning in India’s 39-day staggered general election, last week chaired meetings in New Delhi to oversee efforts to deal with the storm.
India’s seven-phase election began last month and voters in Odisha have already cast their ballots.
Tens of thousands of people remained without electricity in the state capital, Bhubaneswar, and the Hindu temple town of Puri after the storm made landfall on Friday last week.
Power has been restored to airports and hospitals.
In a letter addressed to Patnaik, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, pledged 1 million rupees to Odisha.
After battering India, Fani barreled into neighboring Bangladesh on Saturday as a much weaker storm, killing at least five people.
By Monday, more than 1 million Bangladeshis had returned to their homes from cyclone shelters, officials said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese