Monster cyclone batters Covid-stricken India's west coast, South Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

MAHUVA, INDIA (AFP) – A monster cyclone was lashing India Tuesday (May 18), with powerful winds and driving rain leaving at least 20 people dead, and interrupting the vaccine programme the country urgently needs to get its spiralling Covid-19 outbreak under control. Cyclone Tauktae battered swathes of the vast nation, sending huge waves crashing onto its shores, turning streets into rivers and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee. The colossal swirling system – the biggest to hit the region in decades – claimed lives in Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat as savage winds swept through flimsy homes and…