chairing a high-level meeting to review the response measures against cyclone Amphan, in
New Delhi on 18 May 2020 Amphan's forecast track placed 38.9 million people in India and Bangladesh at risk of exposure to the storm's winds, according to the US
Pacific Disaster Center. The formation of the precursor low-pressure system prompted the IMD to issue a cyclonic alert for India's coastline along the Bay of Bengal, advising fishermen not to sail to susceptible locations in the Bay of Bengal from 15 to 18 May. Fishermen from
Sri Lanka were also advised by the national government to return to or remain in the country, and additional maritime traffic from
Singapore and other countries were advised to remain clear of Amphan's vicinity. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in
Chennai activated an International Safety Net for the Bay of Bengal. Ports were cleared and their operations suspended along the Bay of Bengal, while ferry service along major routes in Bangladesh was suspended by the
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation. Bangladeshi ports suspended the loading and unloading of goods on board ships. Smaller vessels in the harbour at
Chittagong were moved to safety upstream the
Karnaphuli River. Public works departments were called upon by the government of Odisha to ensure infrastructure resiliency; establishing
helplines for emergency response. Rail and vehicular traffic in Odisha and West Bengal was halted or rerouted. The
Shramik train service for
migrant workers was halted in both states for up to four days, with service expected to be curtailed in the storm's aftermath. Other migrants travelling to Odisha were asked to wait out the storm.
AC Express special trains operating routes between
New Delhi and
Bhubaneswar were diverted to avoid the cyclone's effects.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in
Kolkata was closed until 21 May, with planes evacuating or
chocked and the
airport terminal roof fortified to minimize damage. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi held a meeting with Minister of Home Affairs
Amit Shah, Chief Minister of West Bengal
Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of Odisha
Naveen Patnaik and other officials on 18 May to review preparations and evacuation plans. Chief Minister of West Bengal,
Mamata Banerjee announced on the day of hitting of cyclone, that all the areas through which the cyclone will pass are to be disconnected from the power supply until the disaster passed on, except the important places like hospitals, fire station etc. Teams from the
Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were pre-positioned across districts in Odisha and West Bengal on 17 May to assist in preparations for Amphan and render aid where necessary, with additional units placed on standby; these units could be readily airlifted to affected areas on board
Indian Air Force transport aircraft. The
National Disaster Management Authority advised that these crews and other
first responders would also need
personal protective equipment and
N95 masks due to the ongoing pandemic. with ships from the navy placed on standby for relief operations. The Bangladesh Cyclone Preparedness Programme and National Disaster Response Coordination Group convened on 18 May to outline preparations for Amphan. Several
non-governmental agencies coordinated with the Cyclone Preparedness Programme to support
Rohingya refugees at
camps in
Cox's Bazar during Amphan. The
Department of Public Health Engineering distributed sanitation supplies and set up 15 water treatment plants. All 32 Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar were staffed with relief volunteers. Health services in Bangladesh during the storm were reinforced by 1,933 medical teams distributed around Bangladesh. Fifteen thousand volunteers and 284 medical teams were prepared to render aid around Chittagong. According to
Inter-Services Public Relations, 145 disaster management teams from the
Bangladesh Armed Forces were placed on standby with special equipment. The
Bangladesh Army deployed 71 medical teams and arranged 18,400 packets and relief materials in preparation for Amphan's aftermath. Twenty-five ships were dispatched by the
Bangladesh Navy to handle emergency, rescue, and relief operations, with aerial support from the
Bangladesh Air Force. The
Ministry of Agriculture of Bangladesh advised coastal farmers to harvest all mature
paddy fields to mitigate the estimated loss of 12 percent of crop yield. Seven thousand domestic animals were also moved to shelter under the direction of the
Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. An IMD yellow alert was active for 13 of Kerala's 14 districts on 18 May, while an orange alert was issued by the agency for West Bengal, anticipating extensive damage in six districts. The
Bangladesh Meteorological Department issued cyclone danger signal #10, their highest warning, at the
Port of Mongla and the
Port of Payra on 20 May, signifying "great danger" due to Amphan with winds expected to exceed . Signal #10 was also issued for eleven coastal districts, in addition to offshore islands and islands within the
Ganges Delta. Flood and landslide warnings were issued by the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka on 19 May. Boats, helicopters, and crews were stationed by the
Sri Lanka Air Force and
Sri Lanka Navy throughout the island to bolster emergency response. Storm alerts issued by the Thai Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation encompassed 62 provinces, including
Bangkok, while warnings for flash floods, high waves, and landslides were issued for 14 provinces in
southern Thailand. The National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology of
Bhutan warned of the possibility of flash flooding and landslides in the country. The Bhutanese Department of Disaster Management advised against travelling, particularly in southern Bhutan.
Evacuations and
Bangladesh on 19 May The government of Odisha directed the
magistrates of four
districts on 15 May to establish shelter homes for possible evacuees. Odisha Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy initially identified 403 possible cyclone shelters in areas potentially impacted by Amphan, though 105 served as temporary medical centres for quarantines associated with the concurrent
COVID-19 pandemic. The
Kolkata Municipal Corporation located schools and community centres for possible use as temporary shelters to augment evacuation capacity. At least 1,704 shelters were ultimately established in Odisha and more than 2,000 were used in West Bengal, including schools and public buildings. Pandemic constraints on shelters in Bangladesh prompted deputy commissioners in 19
coastal districts to seize educational institutions and mosques for use as shelters. More than 12,000 shelters were opened across Bangladesh, supplied with food and emergency cash from the Bangladeshi
Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and yielding capacity for 5.19 million evacuees. There were 5,767 more shelters in Bangladesh for Amphan than for
Cyclone Bulbul, which struck the country in November 2019, due in part to social distancing restrictions. Approximately 4.2 million people were evacuated in coastal India and Bangladesh, with roughly 2 million from India and 2.2 million from Bangladesh. Most of the evacuations in India occurred in West Bengal. Over a million people were expected to evacuate from areas near the
Bangladesh–India border. Around 4,000 personnel from the SDRF oversaw evacuations in India. Evacuations began on 17 May in Jagatsinghpur, beginning with the elderly and pregnant living in thatched homes. Magistrates were directed to begin evacuating residents from vulnerable homes and low-lying areas in Odisha the following day. The Odisha government took a more targeted evacuation approach for Amphan than in previous storms where more widespread evacuations were utilized. Odisha had shelter capacity for up 1.1 million evacuees, though only 10 percent was expected to be used. nearly 300,000 people evacuated in total from the state, including 200,000 from
North 24 Parganas district and more than 40,000 from
Sagar Island. Officials farther inland in
Dhanbad and
Bokaro Steel City,
Jharkhand, were also instructed to move people from susceptible housing to safety. Two million people were expected to evacuate from low-lying areas of Bangladesh on 19 May; Enamur Rahman, the Minister of Disaster Management and Relief, stated that the evacuation for Amphan in Bangladesh was unprecedented in scale. Trawlers were used to evacuate thousands from the sediment islands in the Ganges Delta to the Bangladeshi mainland. Approximately 50,000 people were evacuated from the islands of the
Sundarbans. ==Impact==