Many of the fatalities occurred in India’s Tamil Nadu state, where the center of the storm left a trail of damage and millions of acres of crops submerged.

Washed-out roads and rail lines hampered relief efforts across a region still without power several days after the storm departed.

The disaster was overshadowed by the terror attacks on Mumbai, which were occurring as the cyclone struck.

In Sri Lanka, two government soldiers were drowned and more than 230,000 civilians were driven from their homes by Nisha's raging floodwaters.

Storm-surge tides caused seawater to burst into thousands of seaside homes along the coast of Tamil Nadu.

Official figures from India say that 2,426 villages and 800,000 people were affected by Nisha’s flooding, with 4,400 huts destroyed and 273 cattle killed.

A new tropical cyclone was forming late in the week to the east of Sri Lanka. Official forecasts projected that the unnamed storm would take a track almost identical to that of Nisha.

Cyclone Nisha Track

Satellite Loop: University of Wisconsin