The Indian navy recovered 22 bodies from Tauktae Coronavirus pandemic from the sunken barge News

Indian navy boats carrying a sunken barge off Mumbai have rescued 22 people when a cyclone landed this week, authorities said.

It is still searching for 55 more missing people, Navy spokesman Mehul Karnik said on Wednesday.

The three ships and helicopters involved in the search could have rescued 184 people in seven rough waves.

Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm in the region in more than two decades, picked up sustained winds of up to 210 km (130 miles) per hour when it landed in the state of Gujarat on Monday. The storm left more than 50 people dead in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Since then the weather has improved and the search for the missing people has intensified, said Alok Anand, commander of the navy.

A survivor told the NDTV news channel that he jumped into the sea in a life jacket and was later picked up by the army.

In another operation, a naval helicopter rescued 35 crew members from another barge, the GAL Constructor, which was sunk in northern Mumbai, in a government note.

Both Barges Oil and Natural Gas Corp. they were working for the company, India’s largest crude oil and natural gas company.

The company said the barges carried workers deployed for offshore drilling and provided anchors in the storm. India’s largest offshore oil rigs are on par with Mumbai.

The Hindu newspaper reported that more than 16,000 homes were damaged by cyclones in the state of Gujarat, the home of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who conducted an aerial survey of storm-hit areas on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducts the air test #CycloneTauktae affected areas of Gujarat and Diu

He is conducting an aerial study in areas like PM, Una, Diu, Jafarabad and Mahuva today. Ahmedabad will also hold a review meeting later. pic.twitter.com/fJMJFDZJsf

– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2021

The storm has put pressure on Indian authorities, coupled with a sharp rise in coronavirus infections and deaths, making hospital beds and oxygen shortages.

In Gujarat, one of the states most affected by the second wave of coronavirus, the cyclone has ripped off piles of power, damaged 16,500 homes and blocked more than 600 roads, authorities said.

The state’s farm sector is also likely to be successful, including the growing mango belt in Saurashtra.

Officials said work was underway to restore electricity supply and clean up the roads, but some parts were still cut.

“Mobile phone networks are not yet in many areas, and I don’t think they will be restored today (Wednesday),” Aayush Oak, a senior official in the Amreli district of Gujarat, told Reuters.

The storm has weakened in a depression centered in the southern state of Rajasthan and the adjacent Gujarat region, the Indian Meteorological Department said on Wednesday.

In neighboring Nepal, authorities urged mountaineers to descend from high altitudes as the storm could lead to severe weather.

Hundreds of climbers, guides and staff are trying to climb several mountains in Nepal this month, as the weather is mostly ideal in high times. Nepal has eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world, including Mount Everest.

Nepal’s Tourism Department on Tuesday urged climbers and equipment agencies to monitor and keep the weather safe.

In 2014, snowstorms and avalanches caused by an Indian cyclone killed 43 people in the mountains of Nepal in the worst hiking disaster in the Himalayan nation.

The snowstorm was thought to have been swept away by the tail of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast a few days earlier.

The snow crossed the famous trekking route in Annapurna and when the weather changed quickly the mountaineers were trapped.