Odisha CM directs officials to ensure zero casualty due to Cyclone Dana

The Odisha government has directed the district collectors to identify people in vulnerable areas and to move them to safe locations

As the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted that a low-pressure area formed over Bay of Bengal is likely to become a cyclonic storm and make landfall between Odisha’s Puri and West Bengal’s Sagar Island between the night of October 24 and early morning of October 25, Odisha chief minister Mohan Majhi on Monday chaired a high-level meeting at the Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar and asked officials to ensure zero casualty

A satellite imagery of the trajectory of cyclone Dana. (IMD)

Majhi said, “Although there have been no deaths due to cyclonic storms over the last few years, there are other causes of loss of life due to caving of mud houses. All the vulnerable houses should be identified and people in all the areas likely to be affected by the cyclone have to be evacuated.”

As heavy rainfall may trigger flash flood or waterlogging in low lying areas, landslides in vulnerable hilly areas and damage to kutcha houses, the Odisha government directed the district collectors to identify people in vulnerable areas and to move them to safe locations.

According to IMD, the low-pressure area over the east-central Bay of Bengal and adjoining north Andaman Sea, is likely to form a depression by October 22 morning and become a cyclonic storm by October 23. The storm is very likely to cross north Odisha and West Bengal coasts between Puri and Sagar Island during the night of October 24 and early morning of October 25 as a severe Cyclonic Storm with a wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting 120 kmph.

IMD said that from October 23, heavy rainfall (7 to 11 cm) is likely to occur in Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts while heavy to very heavy fall (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (>20cm) is likely to occur at isolated places in the districts of Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Cuttack on October 24.

For October 25, the weather office has issued a yellow warning for heavy to very heavy rainfall to Puri, Ganjam, Khurda, Nayagarh, Keonjhar, Angul and Dhenkanal.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has kept 14 teams in West Bengal and 11 teams in Odisha on standby for deployment. The Odisha government has cancelled leaves of all government staff in districts that are likely to be affected.