HYDERABAD, India — A powerful cyclone pounded a large swath of India’s eastern seaboard with heavy rain and strong winds on Sunday, killing at least eight people and causing major damage.
In another storm lashing Asia, Typhoon Vongfong was downgraded to a tropical storm as it hit the Japanese island of Kyushu after battering the southern island of Okinawa. At least 37 people were injured, and authorities advised 150,000 people to evacuate. Train service and flights were disrupted in Kyushu and the neighboring island of Shikoku.
Cyclone Hudhud had winds of 120 miles per hour when the edge of the storm hit land after sweeping through the Bay of Bengal, Rear Admiral S.K. Grewal, the chief staff officer of India’s Eastern Naval Command, told reporters. The storm’s wind speed dipped to about 45 miles per hour on Monday.
Experts said the storm was expected to cause widespread devastation along nearly 185 miles of India’s east coast.
The death toll rose to eight, five in Andra Pradesh state and three in Orissa state, mostly caused by wall collapses and falling trees, officials said.
At least 400,000 people were evacuated from those two states before the storm. Visakhapatnam, one of the largest cities in southern India, bore the brunt of the storm’s fury.
It was still raining across the region, heavily in some places. Authorities plan to make an assessment of the damage as the day breaks and then decide on the contours of the relief operations.