Heavy Rain, Gusty Winds Lash Parts Of Bengal, Odisha After Cyclone Dana’s Landfall, Rescue Teams Clear Roads

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.

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.

The coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore and nearby Jagatsinghpur district witnessed sudden increase in wind speed, reported the ANI.

Several roads were blocked in Bhadrak district after trees were uprooted after strong winds and heavy rain lashed the region.