Trees that fell like ninepins, electric poles toppling like pawns on a chessboard, mighty winds that shattered glass panes, blew away the street lights, snapped telephone, internet and electricity connections, turned Kolkata – a city already moaning under the weight of two months of lockdown – into a zone of urban helplessness as cyclone Amphan hit coastal Bengal on May 20 and raged through its capital city with a fury unmatched in decades.

Over 5,000 trees came down in the area under Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), said urban development minister and KMC administrator Firhad (Bobby) Hakim.

Though the civic body deployed about 17,000 workers to restore normalcy in the city, the situation was so grim that the Mamata Banerjee administration had to seek the help of the armed forces to clear the roads.

In areas such as Dhakuria Lakes, Southern Avenue, Gurusaday Road and Lake Gardens that have a thick green cover, jawans descended with electric saws and pay loaders to clear the way.

Most of the trees also brought down electric poles plunging vast areas of the city into darkness. In many areas, power supply remained cut off for days triggering off attendant problems of water supply, especially in multi-storeyed apartments, where residents had to drag water up in pails through several floors.

“I am dependent on telephone and internet connection to keep in touch with my son and daughter who live abroad. Internet connections first started working seven days after the storm, but remained wobbling at best,” said Snigdha Ray, a septuagenarian of frail health who lives alone in Kasba area.

With internet connection snapped, all schools in the city that were holding classes remotely had to suspend classes till the end of May.

The absence of electricity led to agitations by citizens in different areas with Hakim laying the blame at the door of CESC, the private power utility that has a monopoly in generation and distribution in Kolkata.

In many areas, the citizens also suffered information drought as feeder lines of MSOs snapped depriving households of TV channels for days.

“With no power, no internet, silent phones and silent televisions the cyclone left me feeling archaic for days,” said Soumyadipta Das, a chartered accountant living near Triangular Park, who could not provide online tuition to his students.