India and Bangladesh are bracing for a super cyclone that threatens to claim lives, cause catastrophic flooding and destroy more than half a million homes.
Amid fears of a humanitarian disaster, millions living in the path of Cyclone Amphan - the most powerful storm in 20 years - have been moved to higher ground, but the mass evacuation has been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The monster storm was churning through the Bay of Bengal and was due to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon local time in a region that is home to millions of vulnerable residents in low-lying flood-prone coastal areas and the world's largest refugee camp.
Officials said Amphan could "wash away" thousands of fragile huts or shelters and destroy crops as it batters parts of India and Bangladesh with 115mph winds equivalent to a category 3 hurricane, heavy rain, huge waves and a storm surge as high as a two-storey house.
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The storm's cloud field is 1,740 miles long from tip to tail - that’s the equivalent of the distance from Lisbon to Warsaw, CNN reported.
CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said: "A storm of this magnitude with the amount of rainfall and the storm surge on the coast could be catastrophic across this region of India and Bangladesh."
The cyclone will take four hours to move fully over land, India's Meteorological Department said.
Hours before the powerful cyclone was due to make landfall, heavy rain and strong winds were lashing two eastern Indian states and parts of Bangladesh.
Trees were uprooted, there was localised flooding and some structures were damaged before the worst of the storm hit.
As many as 40 million people could be exposed to tropical cyclone winds during the cyclone, the Pacific Disaster Center said.
Rescue teams were evacuating millions of villagers to higher ground in an operation complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Bangladesh's disaster management officials said they were working on a war footing to evacuate about two million people from coastal areas as Cyclone Amphan approached from the Bay of Bengal.
Oxfam fears up 1.4 million people may be displaced and 600,000 homes could be destroyed.
More than 300 Rohingya refugees living on flood-prone Bhasan Char island in the Bay of Bengal were moved to storm shelters.
The members of the persecuted minority from Myanmar were sent to the island this month after being rescued from boats.
The United Nations has called for the refugees to be moved to the mainland to join more than a million more who live in sprawling camps in the world's largest refugee camp outside the town of Cox's Bazar.
Although that settlement, the world's largest refugee camp, is expected to escape the worst of the storm, the danger level has been raised to nine from six, signifying a severe threat.
The weather department in India said Amphan was likely to weaken into an extreme severe cyclonic storm and cross the coast near West Bengal state or Bangladesh.
It predicted a storm surge of up to 16ft that threatens to submerge many homes and farm land.
Disaster management official SG Rau said: "The cyclone could wash away thousands of huts and standing crops."
An Indian federal home ministry official said West Bengal and neighbouring Odisha state were struggling to house thousands of evacuees as existing shelters were being used as coronavirus quarantine centres.
Extra shelters were being prepared in wholesale markets and government buildings with allowances made for social distancing, while masks and scarves were being distributed among the villagers.
Police in West Bengal state, which is expected to be badly affected by the storm, said people were unwilling to go to the shelters because they were afraid of contracting Covid-19 and many were refusing to leave their livestock behind.
A senior police official in Kolkata told Reuters: "We have literally had to force people out of their homes, make them wear masks and put them in government buildings."
Railway officials have diverted trains away from the cyclone's path to protect thousands of migrant workers travelling to eastern states from the capital New Delhi where they had lost their jobs due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Pankaj Anand, of the humanitarian group Oxfam in India, described Amphan as "a crisis on top of a crisis", Al Jazeera reported.
He said: "Many of the cyclone evacuation shelters are already being used as coronavirus quarantine centres or housing migrants who have returned to their coastal communities because of lockdown. People are worried there won't be enough space in the shelters and that they might catch coronavirus in them."
In Bangladesh, the cyclone could hamper efforts to control the Covid-19 outbreak at the refugee settlement near Cox's Bazar, which reports its first infections last week, said aid workers.
Dipankar Datta, the country director of charity Oxfam in Bangladesh, told Reuters: "It is already a huge challenge to contain the spread of coronavirus among the Rohingya refugees living in over-crowded camps, sharing water and toilet facilities."
Water-borne and other infections were also a threat, he added in a statement.
As aid workers stockpiled food and supplies, Sabbir Ahmed, a 24-year-old Rohingya volunteer, said refugees have been told to head for madrasas and schools if the storm destroys shelters.
He added: "If it hits the camps there will be huge destruction."
Bangladesh's disaster management department said 12,000 cyclone shelters had been set up with a capacity for more than five million evacuees.
Farmers were being helped to move fresh produce and livestock to higher ground.
