KHERAGARH, India: The death toll from freak storms that hit India climbed above 140 on Friday as people told how they had no time to escape the ferocious winds which tore down homes and toppled walls.
Amid warnings of further wild weather, thousands of families spent the night in the open air in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
They told how 130 kilometer-an-hour winds carrying choking sand hit so quickly late Wednesday that they had no time to reach safety from falling walls and trees.
The dust storms claimed 121 lives in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and nearby Uttarakhand and Punjab states, according to latest official tolls.
Separately 21 people were killed by lightning in two southern states.
Authorities in Uttar Pradesh, where 76 died, and Rajasthan, where the storms claimed 39 lives, battled to restore power, clear roads and help people who lost houses.
Residents remain fearful.
“We couldn’t sleep and were worried if the storm hits again. We took precautions and secured everything but nothing can stand up to nature’s fury,” 40-year-old Agra resident Munna Lal Jha said.
Agra district was one of the worst hit areas with at least 43 people killed, according to the state disaster management authority.
Twenty-four of them were killed in the small town of Kheragarh, near Agra. Many people in the region live in mud-wall homes that would have barely resisted the ferocious winds.
Four children from the same family were killed when a wall collapsed on them in Kheragarh.
Damaged houses lined the town’s dusty roads. Heaps of stones and bricks lay where dozens of homes were destroyed by the gale-force winds.
Villagers salvaged belongings from under the debris or fixed broken windows and doors blown away in the storm.
Some were only left to mourn.
Ram Bhorosi said how his son and a nephew died when their house caved in as they welcomed people who had attended his daughter’s wedding.
“We had guests at home and my son went inside the room to get a bed when the storm struck,” he said.
“A big stone crushed his head after the roof collapsed. His cousin was also caught under the crumbling roof. Half a dozen men helped us to clear the rubble to take out bodies. They didn’t get time to raise the alarm, it was so sudden.”
In nearby Burera village, Anil Kumar told of his narrow escape when their house fell.
“We were sitting outside when the winds suddenly started raging. Four of us were crushed under the debris after the wall fell. My grandfather died but the others survived with injuries.”
At Bharatpur in Rajasthan, another of the worst-hit towns, a college gate pillar toppled killing three young men, all 18, who had just been accepted as police constables or soldiers, media reported.
The winds in Rajasthan raged at more than 100 kph, destroying houses, tearing up electricity pylons and uprooting trees.
The India Meteorological Department has warned there are likely to be more storms over a wider area until Tuesday.
Storms and lightning strikes kill many people every year in India but this was one of the most severe series of storms in recent decades.
The head of the Telangana state disaster management department, R V Chandravadan, said volatile weather would also continue in the southern region.
Seven people were killed Thursday in lightning strikes and strong winds, which knocked down walls and tore up trees in the state.
“We have similar weather warnings for next two days,” Chandravadan said.
Another 14 people were killed in Andhra Pradesh, which was hit by more than 41,000 lightning strikes late Tuesday.
India storm toll rises with more wild weather forecast
India storm toll rises with more wild weather forecast
- Amid warnings of further wild weather, thousands of families spent the night in the open air in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
- Seven people were killed Thursday in lightning strikes and strong winds, which knocked down walls and tore up trees in Telangana state
WHO chief says reasons US gave for withdrawing ‘untrue’
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO
- And in a post on X, Tedros added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue”
GENEVA: The head of the UN’s health agency on Saturday pushed back against Washington’s stated reasons for withdrawing from the World Health Organization, dismissing US criticism of the WHO as “untrue.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that US announcement this week that it had formally withdrawn from the WHO “makes both the US and the world less safe.”
And in a post on X, he added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue.”
He insisted: “WHO has always engaged with the US, and all Member States, with full respect for their sovereignty.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO.
They accused the agency, of numerous “failures during the Covid-19 pandemic” and of acting “repeatedly against the interests of the United States.”
The WHO has not yet confirmed that the US withdrawal has taken effect.
- ‘Trashed and tarnished’ -
The two US officials said the WHO had “trashed and tarnished” the United States, and had compromised its independence.
“The reverse is true,” the WHO said in a statement.
“As we do with every Member State, WHO has always sought to engage with the United States in good faith.”
The agency strenuously rejected the accusation from Rubio and Kennedy that its Covid response had “obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives and then concealed those failures.”
Kennedy also suggested in a video posted to X Friday that the WHO was responsible for “the Americans who died alone in nursing homes (and) the small businesses that were destroyed by reckless mandates” to wear masks and get vaccinated.
The US withdrawal, he insisted, was about “protecting American sovereignty, and putting US public health back in the hands of the American people.”
Tedros warned on X that the statement “contains inaccurate information.”
“Throughout the pandemic, WHO acted quickly, shared all information it had rapidly and transparently with the world, and advised Member States on the basis of the best available evidence,” the agency said.
“WHO recommended the use of masks, vaccines and physical distancing, but at no stage recommended mask mandates, vaccine mandates or lockdowns,” it added.
“We supported sovereign governments to make decisions they believed were in the best interests of their people, but the decisions were theirs.”
- Withdrawal ‘raises issues’ -
The row came as Washington struggled to dislodge itself from the WHO, a year after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to that effect.
The one-year withdrawal process reached completion on Thursday, but Kennedy and Rubio regretted in their statement that the UN health agency had “not approved our withdrawal and, in fact, claims that we owe it compensation.”
WHO has highlighted that when Washington joined the organization in 1948, it reserved the right to withdraw, as long as it gave one year’s notice and had met “its financial obligations to the organization in full for the current fiscal year.”
But Washington has not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, and is behind around $260 million.
“The notification of withdrawal raises issues,” WHO said Saturday, adding that the topic would be examined during WHO’s Executive Board meeting next month and by the annual World Health Assembly meeting in May.
“We hope the US will return to active participation in WHO in the future,” Tedros said Saturday.
“Meanwhile, WHO remains steadfastly committed to working with all countries in pursuit of its core mission and constitutional mandate: the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right for all people.”
