The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh.
Four more people died on Saturday, and more than a million had been moved to safety.
Damage from the cyclone. Source: Getty
After it made landfall early on Friday, tropical cyclone Fani had lost some of its power and was downgraded to a deep depression by the Indian Meteorological Department as the storm moved inland over Bangladesh.
"The fear of a major disaster is mostly over as it has weakened," Shamsuddin Ahmed, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told reporters.
A storm surge still breached embankments to submerge dozens of villages on Bangladesh's low-lying coast, a disaster ministry official in Dhaka said.
About 1.2 million people living in the most vulnerable districts in Bangladesh had been moved to some 4000 shelters. The storm damaged more than 500 houses.
Bangladesh's junior disaster minister Enamur Rahman told reporters that at least four people had been killed and 63 injured.
Electronic display boards flash cancelled flights outside the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose international airport. Source: AAP
In India, authorities were assessing damage left behind by Fani, which had spent days building power over the northern reaches of the Bay of Bengal before tearing into Odisha.
Indian media reported that at least 12 people had died across the state, with most deaths caused by falling trees.
A mass evacuation of 1.2 million people in the 24 hours before the tropical cyclone made landfall averted a greater loss of life.
Locals wait as tourists are evacuted before Cyclone Fani made landfall. Source: AAP
The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, suffered extensive damage, as winds gusting up to 200km/h tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines and uprooted trees on Friday.
At least six people died in Bhubaneswar, Odisha's state capital, where fallen trees blocked roads and electricity supply was still to be fully restored.
