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Cyclone Dana makes landfall between Odisha’s Bhitarkanika and Dhamra, unleashes heavy rainfall
Cyclone Dana: Landfall process commenced at 12:10am and the forward sector of the wall cloud region is entering into land.
Heavy winds and rains pounded coastal Odisha as severe cyclonic storm Dana made landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra past Thursday midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The landfall process of cyclone Dana began at around 12:10am between Bhitarkanika in Kendrapara district and Dhamra of Bhadrak district. "The landfall process would continue till Friday morning after which it would be weaker and then recurve towards Dhenkanal and Angul district instead of Keonjhar," Manorama Mohanty, regional director of IMD Bhubaneswar said.
Officials said the severe cyclonic storm was packing winds gusting to a top speed of 120kmph and triggering torrential rains. Under its impact, a 1-1.5 metre storm surge above the normal tide would be experienced at the coast in the Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts.
Mohanty said coastal Odisha would continue to see heavy rainfall through the day.
"Scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (>20cm) very likely to occur in the districts of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Balasore, and Mayurbhanj. Scattered heavy to very heavy falls (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (>20cm) very likely to occur at isolated places in the districts of Jajpur, Bhadrak, Puri, Dhenkanal, Khordha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Angul from Friday morning to Saturday morning," said an IMD official.
The Odisha government had initially proposed to evacuate a million people. But officials said the plan was pared down after it became evident that Dana would be a much weaker system than previously apprehended.
A senior IMD official said the fact that severe cyclone Dana had a shorter travel time over sea may have helped prevent intensification to extreme category. “The cyclone developed very close to the coast and hence its life is short. Yet, it’s a severe cyclone. It has increased intensity mainly because warm Sea Surface Temperature (SST),” a senior IMD official said on Thursday.
“Over north Bay of Bengal, the temperatures are higher even at depth so that helps the system intensify. Dry air from land will also help counter the intensity of Dana when landfall begins.”
Hours before Dana barrelled into the eastern coast, the state government said nearly 600,000 people were shifted to 6000-odd cyclone shelters and buildings.
At least 19 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 51 teams of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force apart from 220 teams of the fire department have been deployed in the affected districts to help with rescue operations and clear roads. Besides, additional 158 platoons of police force have been deployed in all the districts.
Targeting zero casualty
"Our target is zero casualty. Work is underway to ensure 100% evacuation from all the low-lying and vulnerable areas," said chief minister Mohan Majhi said on Thursday.
The Odisha state government has categorised Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts as high-risk zones; Mayurbhanj under category two where wind speeds would be at 80-90 kmph, gusting to 100 kmph; Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Jajpur come under category three where wind speeds would be at 60-80 kmph, gusting to 90 kmph.
While more than 200 trains traversing through Odisha have been cancelled by Railways, as many as 40 flights in Bhubaneswar were cancelled due to the impending severe cyclonic storm Dana, informed the airport director Prasanna Pradhan on Thursday.
Biju Patnaik International Airport director PK Pradhan said there is a possibility of wind speed of 35-40 knots or even more in Bhubaneswar, it would not be safe for flight operations. "So we have decided to suspend flight services at the airport from 5 pm today to 9 am tomorrow affecting around 40 flights,” said Pradhan. Private bus services from Balasore to Bhubaneswar have been suspended in view of the cyclone.
