The nor’wester that hit the city and the districts on Tuesday left 18 people dead and several injured. Among the deaths, eight are from Kolkata, six from Howrah, two from Bankura and one each from North 24-Parganas and Hooghly. A total of 155 houses in Kolkata, 23 in Howrah, 52 in Hooghly were damaged.

In the city, 256 trees and 225 electric posts collapsed, said Miss Banerjee at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Wednesday. The first squall of thunder came roaring at about 84 km per hour around 7.42 p.m.,while the second round of howling winds hit the city with a more fierce speed of 98 km per hour, taking a few unaware lives who were busy with their daily routine.

Transport in several areas including Bhawanipore, Strand Road, Bijan Setu, Sova Bazar, Ruby and Bantala came to a standstill as trees were uprooted. Two deaths was reported from Lenin Sarani near Jyoti Cinema, where a tree fell on an autorickshaw, crushing it completely.

The driver of the autorickshaw along with a passenger died on the spot, while two others were admitted to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CNMC) with severe injuries.

A simultaneous call of death came for Md Shahid (40), a resident of Gobinda Khatick Road who took shelter under a four storied building at Gulshan colony auto stand in Anandapur.

While he was talking to Md Arzoo (35) of G J Khan Road, another bystander, a portion of the second floor of the building came crushing on both of them.

While Shahid was declared brought dead, Arzoo is battling for life at Calcutta Medical Research Institute. The death toll continued to increase when a portion of wall of an under construction five-storey building at Kalakar Street fell on the balcony of an adjacent premise hitting 28- year-old Ankit Shukla, a resident of Howrah.

Nirush Minz of Parnashree area also met with a similiar fate when a big branch fell on him. The violent storm engulfed another life, when Subir Kumar Sajjan of Nabanjiban in Airport area was hit by a huge broken bough near Surendra Nath College in Muchipara.

A tree fell on a lorry at Sova Bazar Basti Patti and four lamp posts falling at a cockeyed angle created a roadblock for a considerable time.

The disaster management team and the KMC trucks struggled for hours to clear roadblock at various points. Uprooted trees with broken branches paralysed the city for a few hours, leaving a mark of terror on the commuters who struggled to reach their destinations last night.

Power supply was also disrupted. In the wake of the storm, CESC observed a sharp surge in emergency telephone calls throughout the night, recording a total of 36,000 calls.

A CESC official said: “We are working on a day-and night basis and restored more than 70 per cent of the faults throughthe night. We expect that normalcy will be restored in most cases by Wednesday.”

Amongst the affected areas were northern and eastern parts of the city, including Patuli, Panchasayar, Survey Park, Lake Town, Bangur, Dum Dum, Kamarhati, Khardah, Sodepur, Howrah and Serampore.

Meanwhile, mango and paddy cultivation suffered a setback due to last evening’s hailstorm in some parts of Burdwan (East) and Bankura. Mr Jagannath Chatterjee, deputy director of agriculture in Burdwan (East), said: “The block officials have been told to assess the extent of damage.”