Kolkata, April 18 (IANS) Altogether 18 deaths were reported in the city and four southern districts following the twin storms accompanied by rains which lashed parts of West Bengal on Tuesday night, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Wednesday.
"Eight people perished in Kolkata while six died in Howrah. The storm claimed two lives in Bankura and one each in Hoogly and North 24 Parganas district," she told the reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna here.
Banerjee said 230 houses were totally or partially damaged and 225 electric poles and 255 trees were uprooted by the storms which hit the city and southern districts with a gale speed of nearly km per hour.
She said the ferocity of the wind on Tuesday evening could be compared with the cyclonic storm Aila which ravaged southern West Bengal claiming 149 lives.
"The administration worked through the night to control the damage. Because we all monitored the situation minute by minute, the devastation did not reach the proportion of 2009. We will provide all aids and relief necessary to the affected," she said.
The twin storms accompanied by rains hit the state within a gap of 15 minutes on Tuesday evening, disrupting rail, road and air traffic and affecting mobile and internet services by snapping overhead wires and damaging mobile towers.
