India braces for biggest storm in a decade

Authorities in eastern India and Bangladesh were scrambling on Tuesday to move tens of thousands of villagers away from coasts expected to suffer widespread damage from a super cyclone, a task complicated by the battle on the coronavirus.

Emer McCarthy reports.

Authorities in eastern India and Bangladesh were scrambling to move tens of thousands of villagers away from the coast on Tuesday (May 19) as super cyclone Amphan barrels across the Bay of Bengal.

India is facing one of its biggest storms in about a decade, the weather office said, and it has meant rapidly repurposing some coronavirus shelters into shelters for the storm.

It's expected to hit late Wednesday (May 20) with the force equivalent of a category 5 hurricane, causing widespread damage.

This villager in East Midnapore says they're piling up the sand bags to save their community - and they're constructing a dam to hold off the sea water.

The cyclone is packing windspeeds of up to 98 miles an hour.

In neighboring Bangladesh, where the cyclone threatens the worst storm in about 15 years, the cyclone is expected to hit land just 93 miles from camps housing more than a million Rohingya refugees.