Bhubaneswar: As cyclone ‘Dana’ left a trail of destruction after it made landfall in Bhitarkanika of Odisha’s Kendrapada district, the authorities swung into action and launched restoration and relief operation on war footing in the affected areas.
Teams of NDRF, ODRAF and Odisha Fire Service deployed in different coastal districts geared up to restore normalcy by clearing and removing uprooted trees that blocked roads in many areas.
Officials said the restoration work was taken up on war footing in districts like Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Balasore and Jagatsinghpur which were severely affected by the cyclonic storm which hit the coast in Bhitarkanika area Thursday midnight. The landfall process was completed on Friday morning.
Sources said NDRF teams removed uprooted trees in different villages of Dhamra in Bhadrak district which witnessed turbulent seas, gusty winds and rainfall under the impact of the cyclone.
Additional District Magistrate of Bhadrak, Shantanu Mohanty, said, “We had already evacuated people from vulnerable areas and they are safe in cyclone shelters.”
Stating that electricity supply and other things have been restored, he said Fire Service, ODRF and NDRF teams have been moved in to uprooted trees blocking roads in different areas.
Higher Education and Sports Minister Suryabanshi Suraj, who was camping in Bhadrak district to oversee arrangements to tackle the cyclone, said wind speed has slowed down after the landfall, while rain is still continuing.
“We will restore electricity supply once the rain stops. We have adequate poles and all the necessary arrangements for that. We thought that we would have to evacuate around 40,000 people in Bhadrak but last night it crossed the 1 lakh mark as more people moved to shelters.
Food arrangements have been made, and communication lines and roadways are fine,” he said.
People in Kendrapada district, which was on the path of cyclone Dana, heaved a sigh of relief as the severe cyclonic storm largely spared the coastal district on Friday.
While there is no report of loss of life and property, tidal surges made inroads into some of the villages and agriculture fields have come to light, officials said.
“No loss of life has been reported so far. The loss of property has been minimal. We are hopeful of restoring normalcy shortly,” said Kendrapada Collector, Smruti Ranjan Pradhan.
The cyclone triggered heavy rains and strong winds across the coastal districts of Kendrapada, Bhadrak, and Balasore.
In Jagatsinghpur, roads are being cleared by the NDRF team as trees are uprooted in Paradip due to gusty winds and rain triggered by Cyclone Dana.
In Kendrapada, the settlement colony at Bagapatia, housing the people displaced from their native land in Satabhaya due to sea erosion, has come under water inundation as tidal surge entered into the colony, an official said.
The severe cyclone storm made landfall near Habelikhati nature camp in Bhitarkanika National Park as it had been forecast in advance by IMD.
“With adequate precautionary measures and timely evacuation, we have successfully withstood nature’s fury with zero human casualty. The damage has been minimal with the cave-in of some kutcha houses. The uprooting of standing trees in several places of coastal Rajnagar block has disrupted the road communication,” said Nishant Mishra, Block Development Officer of Rajnagar block in Kendrapada.
However, road communication has largely been restored by ODRAF teams which cleared the uprooted trees, he said.
Kendrapada and neighbouring Bhadrak were on the path of ‘Dana’. The government agencies had sounded alert well in advance evacuating people from vulnerable pockets. The cyclone, of course, impacted the district with strong velocity wind, heavy downpour, uprooting trees, damaging power infrastructures in some parts and blowing away scores of kutcha houses.
The villages that bore the brunt of the cyclonic storm are Talchua, Rangani, Keruapala, Baghamari, Dangamal, Iswarpur, Gupti and Satabhaya, said an official.
Heavy rain accompanied by gusty wind caused considerable damage to the crops. Though nature has been kind towards us this time in sparing us from cyclonic devastation, damage to agriculture is on a large scale. The crop fields are flooded. Only after the rain subsides, we can assess the extent of damage, said Priyanath Pradhan, a farmer from Talchua village.
NDRF DIG Mohsen Shahedi said there is no information of any major damage in cyclone affected areas and steps are being taken to restore complete normalcy.
Meanwhile, Bus services at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bus Terminal’ (BSABT) at Baramunda in Bhubaneswar were affected. People could be seen moving around the bus terminal awaiting transport services to resume.
