Heavy Rain, Strong Winds In Odisha, Bengal As Cyclone Dana Makes Landfall

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 landfall process would continue for the next 1-2 hours,” the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said in an update around 6 am.Dana, which was named by Qatar, is likely to weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by today forenoon, the weather agency added.Reports of trees getting uprooted were received at the office of the Special Relief Commissioner in the Odisha capital Bhubaneswar.In neighbouring West Bengal, East Midnapore and Kolkata 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, will resume at 9:00 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 Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi-led government said that they have 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. About 150 platoons (1 platoon comprising 30 personnel) of Odisha Police have also been pressed into service for rescue, road clearing and other activities at the ground level.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.