Cyclone Dana completes landfall: ‘Zero casualty mission successful’ in Odisha, West Bengal to assess damages

Dana, which hit the landmass at a wind speed of 110 kmph, weakened and become a cyclonic storm, laying centered at about 50 km north-north west of Dhamra and 30 km of north east of Bhadrak town on Friday morning. The landfall of ‘Dana’ started at about 12.05 am on Thursday night and was completed at around 8.30 am today, an IMD scientist said, as per PTI.

Waves crash at the beach at Digha ahead of the landfall of Cyclone ‘Dana’, in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (PTI Photo)

The cyclone is likely to move northwestwards across north Odisha and weaken gradually into a deep depression during next six hours, the IMD stated. The weather agency has stressed that the system is under continuous surveillance of the Doppler weather radar at Paradip.

No casualty, restoration work on, flight ops resume: What’s the aftermath of the storm?

The Odisha CM announced Friday that no human life was lost in the storm. “There is no report of any death of any human life. Our zero casualty Mission has been successful with the cooperation of everyone,” he said.

While thanking all the stakeholders including ministers, MLAs, other peoples representatives, rescue teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), Fire Service, Odisha Police, social activists, media and others, the chief minister said: “By the grace of Lord Jagannath and cooperation of all, the government have succeeded in saving human lives.”

Meanwhile, after several tree felling incidents were reported in Odisha, the NDRF and ODRAF teams kick started restoration work. The rescue teams braved gusty winds and heavy rain in Dhamra area of Bhadrak district.

As many 13 battalions from West Bengal’s disaster management team and 14 battalions of the NDRF have been deployed in the coastal regions of the state, officials said. (PTI Photo)

Odisha Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj said: “There has been massive damage to electrical installations due to tree falling. Roads are being cleared.”

Since Thursday night, torrential rains lashed parts of Bengal, including Kolkata. Power Minister Aroop Biswas said that while there has been significant rainfall, a detailed damage assessment will be available by the evening, reported PTI.

Waterlogging incidents were reported in several parts of Mandarmani in Purba Medinipur and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas.

Flight operations, which were suspended in both Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in West Bengal and Bhubaneswar Airport resumed at 8 am today.

Cyclone Dana was expected generate wind gusts up to 120 kmph. (Image Source: Zoom Earth)

The airport had suspended flight operations from 5 pm on Thursday in view of the landfall process of the cyclone Dana.

The Indian Railways had also cancelled over two hundred trains in view of the cyclone.

What were the preparations in place?

📌 Odisha: Ahead of the cyclone, over 10 lakh people were evacuated to shelters in Odisha. Odisha Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari had said: “The state has identified over 3,000 vulnerable locations (villages) across 14 districts, primarily along the coastal belt, and started evacuation procedures.”

Twenty NDRF teams, 51 ODRAF teams, 178 fire service teams, and over 200 platoons of police personnel were deployed in affected districts.

📌 Bengal: In Bengal, the state administration raced against time on Thursday to evacuate people and bring them to safe shelters. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee monitored the situation from the Kolkata control room.

Officials indicated that over 3.5 lakh people were brought to shelters in eight districts of the state, including Kolkata, Howrah, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Bankura and Hooghly.

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