On Friday, Cyclone Fani made landfall on the east coast of India, before moving on to Bangladesh the following day, leaving a trail of destruction in both countries. One of the most powerful storms to hit the subcontinent in the past 20 years, it has killed at least 30 people and wounded hundreds more. However, compared to the Bhola cyclone – which struck East Pakistan and West Bengal in 1970, claiming the lives of more than 500,000 people – the list of casualties is mercifully short. That the death toll remains limited is testament to the mass evacuations carried out by Indian and Bangladeshi authorities and the efficacy of today's early-warning systems. In the Indian state of Odisha, which was hit by winds of up to 205kmph, the government removed more than one million people from harm. In West Bengal, 42,000 more were guided to safety. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, 400,000 Bangladeshis were taken to shelters.
That these plans have averted thousands of deaths in no doubt. However, Cyclone Fani will still have a far-reaching effect on the communities it ripped through. It has wrecked 10,000 villages and 52 urban areas in eastern India. In Bangladesh – one of the most impoverished nations in the world – 1,000 houses have been torn down. With thousands of homes and livelihoods lost, the scale of reconstruction efforts will be vast. In Odisha, the storm battered the holy Hindu town of Puri, a tourist destination, to which millions of visitors flock each year. Fortunately, its 858-year-old temple only sustained mild damage.
From Mozambique to Haiti and Indonesia, natural disasters have become regular occurrences in recent years. This worrying trend is only likely to increase, as climate change renders coastal areas more vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather. In addition to international efforts to reduce carbon emissions and limit global warming, it is vital that we build and maintain robust systems to ensure the safety of those most likely to be affected by such events. As we have seen in India and Bangladesh, these measures save thousands of lives. There can be no better investment than that.