Trees uprooted, heavy rain in Odisha as cyclone Dana completes landfall
Cyclone Dana hit the Odisha coast in India on Friday, uprooting trees and snapping power lines in several areas. The storm made landfall around midnight between Bhitarkanika in the Kendrapara district and Dhamra in Bhadrak with wind speeds of 100-110 kmph.
The landfall process of Cyclone Dana began on the Odisha coast around midnight with the districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore and Jagatsinghpur witnessing wind speeds of 110 kmph and extremely heavy rain.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), in an update around 10 am, said the landfall process was completed and the system took at least eight and half hours to enter the landmass.
Dana, which was named by Qatar, is likely to weaken gradually in the next six hours, the weather agency said.
Reports of trees getting uprooted and some areas getting inundated were received from Odisha. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi claimed that the state has achieved its "Zero Casualty Mission" as there has been no report regarding any loss of human life or injury due to the severe cyclonic storm.
In neighbouring West Bengal, East Midnapore also witnessed the impact of the cyclone.
The services at Bhubaneswar's Biju Patnaik International Airport and Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, which were suspended on Thursday evening as part of precautionary measures, resumed at 8 am today.
Authorities in both states evacuated lakhs of people, shut schools, cancelled more than 400 trains, and suspended flight operations as they braced for the severe cyclonic storm.
In Odisha, the Mohan Charan Majhi-led government had said that they evacuated about 5.8 lakh people and deployed 385 rescue teams comprising National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) 51, Fire Service and Forest staff.
In Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said 2,43,374 people have taken shelter in camps.
She also stayed the entire Thursday night at the state secretariat and personally monitored the situation.
Source: NDTV
