Turbulent sea, gusty winds and rainfall hit Dhamra and Bhadrak as an impact of Cyclone Dana
OdishaPlus Bureau
The landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning and the system took at least eight and a half hours to enter the landmass.
The IMD, in its hourly bulletin, said, “The landfall process has been completed.” The landfall of ‘Dana’ started at about 12.05 pm on Thursday and it took around eight and a half hours to end the process. The landfall process was completed at around 8.30 am on Friday, an IMD scientist said.
The IMD said at 8.23 am that the “Landfall process continues and the rear sector of the cyclone is entering into the land. The landfall process would continue for the next 1-2 hours. The system is likely to move nearly northwestwards across the north Odisha and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm.” The system is under continuous surveillance by the Doppler radar at Paradip.
Habelikhati Camp
The cyclone had moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 12 kmph and was centered over north coastal Odisha, about 15 km north of Dhamra and 30 km north-northwest of Habalikhati nature camp (Bhitarkanika). This is where the cyclone made the docking.
The NDRF and ODRAF teams started restoration work by removing uprooted trees from the roads in the coastal districts of Odisha even as the landfall process of severe cyclonic storm Dana is still going on.
Turbulent sea, gusty winds, and rainfall hit Dhamra and Bhadrak as an impact of Cyclone Dana. Around 5.84 lakh people have been evacuated to shelters.
Flights Normal
According to an official statement, Odisha has made extensive preparations to tackle the cyclone’s impact. The State has set up 5209 cyclone shelters and evacuated people from vulnerable areas, including 3654 pregnant women who have been relocated to nearby hospitals.
Flight and train services resumed in Bhubaneswar on Friday morning even though cyclone Dana continued to tear through the Odisha coast since midnight. Biju Patnaik International Airport here resumed its operation with the first flight landing around 9 am. Though the airport authorities had decided to suspend services till 9 am on Friday, the operations resumed a bit early as the weather conditions improved.
The East Coast Railway (ECoR), in a statement, said trains started running as per schedule, barring those canceled earlier in its jurisdiction.
Congress Demand
With the cyclonic storm Dana making landfall in Odisha and impacting West Bengal and other eastern coastal regions, the Congress has urged the government to extend comprehensive support to affected states and deploy all preventive and emergency measures to ensure public safety.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Cyclone Dana’s landfall in Odisha and its impact on West Bengal and other eastern coastal regions necessitate utmost preparedness and swift action.
