Bhubaneswar/Kolkata: Heavy rain packed with gusty winds lashed parts of southern West Bengal and northern Odisha as the severe cyclonic storm ‘Dana’ made landfall on the Odisha coast after midnight on Thursday (October 24). The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued an alert for extremely heavy rainfall in parts of Odisha and Bengal on Friday morning. In about six hours, it is likely to weaken into deep depression, IMD predicted.
Gale wind speed reaching 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph along & off north Odisha prevailed during the early hours of Friday morning.
In southern Odisha and remaining districts of coastal Bengal, winds gusting to 90 kmph would prevail on Friday morning, IMD predicted.
After making the landfall, the severe cyclonic storm laid centred about 20 km north-northwest of Dhamara, 30 km east of Bhadrak and 40 km north-northwest of Habalikhati nature camp (Bhitarkanika) in Odisha around 5.30am on Friday.
“It (cyclone Dana) is likely to move nearly northwestwards across north Odisha and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by forenoon of today, the 25th October. As a result isolated extremely heavy rainfall is very likely over Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal on 25th October 2024,” the IMD cautioned.
Red alert for Odisha districts
Red warning for heavy-to-very heavy rainfall has been issued for isolated places in Jajpur, Bhadrak, Puri, Dhenkanal, Khordha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Angul districts.
Orange warning has been issued for isolated places in Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Nayagarh, Boudh and Sonepur districts.
#WATCH | Roads are being cleared by the NDRF team as trees are uprooted in Jagatsinghpur’s Paradip due to gusty winds and rain amid #CycloneDana pic.twitter.com/1ZTDyYfCan
— ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2024
Restoration process underway
As the landfall process continued till early morning hours of Friday, high tide waves hit Bengal’s Old Digha beach in East Midnapore district. Meanwhile, NDRF and other disaster management teams were clearing roads since 4am on Friday in various villages of north Odisha.
“We are deployed in Paradip, especially for port entry to Nehru Bangla area… We have been clearing roads since morning, 4:00 am… Cyclone has been moderate here…,” said NDRF inspector, Vikram told the ANI.
#WATCH | West Bengal | High tide waves hit Purba Medinipur, Old Digha beach, as the landfall process of #CycloneDana began pic.twitter.com/6iJg17964Z
— ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2024
The coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore and nearby Jagatsinghpur district witnessed sudden increase in wind speed, reported the ANI.
#WATCH | Deepak Kumar from Odisha Fire Services, says, “…Rodas are blocked as many trees are uprooted here. At first, we will clear NH and other roads and then we will head towards residential areas. Our two teams are working in Dhamra. We don’t have any information as of now,… https://t.co/t6J2YplDJl pic.twitter.com/tOhq1oJL1U
— ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2024
Several roads were blocked in Bhadrak district after trees were uprooted after strong winds and heavy rain lashed the region.
