Cyclone Dana sweeps India coastal areas, no casualty reported
The severe cyclonic storm "Dana" swept coastal areas of India's eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal today since making landfall after midnight, toppling trees, snapping power lines and inundating some low-lying areas but no casualties were reported, officials said.
The cyclone made landfall in Odisha nearly half an hour after midnight with wind speeds of 100-110 kmph gusting up to 120 kmph and indications are that it is expected to weaken into a cyclonic storm by forenoon, the Indian met department said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "We don't have any reports of damage to life or property, only damage to trees. Power in the affected area will be restored by late afternoon," said Dilip Routrai, administrative chief of Bhitarkanika and Dhamra in Odisha where the cyclone made landfall.
Roads were blocked by uprooted trees in coastal villages of Dhamra in Bhadrak due to the cyclone and a few houses have been damaged, our New Delhi correspondent reports.
Heavy rainfall also lashed parts of West Bengal and a surge in the sea water inundated low-lying areas and damaged standing paddy crop that was almost ready for harvest in some fields.
Vegetables perished in large agricultural tracts because of heavy rains and storm surge of the sea water that entered many areas in the Sunderbans belt," said Bankim Hazra, minister for Sunderban Affairs.
Flight operations at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneshwar and Netaji Subhash International Airport in Kolkata resumed its operation at 8:00am this morning as the weather conditions became normal, officials said.
The operations were stopped since around 6:00pm on October 24 in view of the cyclone.
Though the airport authority had earlier decided to suspend flight operation at Bhubaneshwar airport till 9:00am today, it was decided to restart an hour earlier as the weather conditions became normal, said Airport Director Prasanna Pradhan.
Heavy rains packed with gusty winds pounded parts of southern West Bengal as the landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm "Dana" continued to tear through the Odisha coast since midnight.
Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi said nearly 5.84 lakh people were evacuated from high-risk, low-lying zones in coastal areas. The Odisha government had initially planned to evacuate one million people. However, officials revised this estimate after realising that cyclone Dana would be much weaker than originally feared.
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