In the middle of a nationwide lockdown, India is preparing for a super cyclone
India has been planning for an extreme weather season in the context of COVID-19 for some time. (NASA Worldview /)On the Bay of Bengal this week, an environmental disaster has a name: Amphan. The storm, which was recently reclassified from a super cyclone to a slightly less severe, super cyclonic storm, is among the strongest storms ever to be recorded in the Bay. It could potentially impact almost 40 million people in India and Bangladesh, according to the Pacific Disaster Center, which tracks natural disasters in the area. In the midst of mitigating the potential downfalls of this storm, officials are working to prevent another disaster: the enhanced spread of COVID-19 as people evacuate and first responders work closely together. Odisha, the east Indian state likely to be hardest hit by Amphan (pronounced UM-PUN), has plenty of experience dealing with environmental disasters. Mongabay India reports that experience prepared them to...