Cyclone Dana Landfall Begins On Odisha Coast, Says IMD

Bhubaneswar: The landfall process of severe cyclonic storm Dana began on Thursday night and was expected to continue till Friday morning, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The storm moved north-northwest at a speed of 15 kmph over the past six hours before making landfall between Bhitarkanika in Kendrapara district and Dhamra in Bhadrak district, with wind speeds of around 110 kmph, a senior IMD official said.

“The landfall started with the entry of the outer cloud mass of the system. When the centre of the system reaches land, wind speeds are expected to reach 120 kmph,” Umashankar Das, a senior scientist at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, told PTI.

Das noted that the landfall process will last for about four to five hours till Friday morning.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had inquired about the Odisha government’s preparedness to handle the impending storm.

Around 10 districts likely to be affected by Cyclone Dana, says Odisha Minister Suresh Pujari

Odisha State Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Suresh Pujari said that around 10 districts are likely to be affected by the cyclone, adding that the evacuation process has already reached its conclusion.

Speaking to media, Pujari said, “Around 10 districts are likely to be affected by the cyclone, comprising 60 blocks, 2131 villages, 12 urban local bodies, and 55 wards in different urban local bodies. The evacuation process has already reached its conclusion... Three lakh seventy-seven thousand people have already been evacuated... We have prepared 7307 relief centres across different districts. 4756 cyclone relief centres are already operational... 6454 domestic animals have been brought to relief centres...213 medical teams have been deployed to take care of the evacuated people 120 veterinary teams have also been positioned in different locations.”

"The total response force employed in different districts is 385. 19 NDRF, 51 ODRAF, 220 fire services teams and 95 Odisha Forest Development Corporation teams are also deployed," the Minister added.

The India Meteorological Department also posted on X and said that Cyclone 'Dana' has moved north-westwards with a speed of 13 kmph during the past three hours. It is about 60 Km from Dhamara in Odisha and 170 km from Sagar Island in West Bengal.

Odisha Special Relief Commissioner Deoranjan Singh asserted that everything is under control as of now. 

With inputs from agencies