Odisha: Severe Cyclonic Storm ‘Dana’ Set To Make Landfall On Coast, High Alert Issued

The severe cyclone ‘Dana’ formed over the east-central Bay of Bengal is set to make landfall along the Odisha coast somewhere between Bhitarkanika and Dhamra late tonight. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted wind speeds of 100 to 120 km per hour during the landfall of ‘Dana’ and the landfall process will continue till early morning of tomorrow with widespread impact to the region.

The severe cyclone is 210 km from Paradip and 240 km from Dhamra off the Odisha coast, and it is moving at a speed of 12 km per hour in the Bay of Bengal. Kendrapara, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur, and Bhadrak districts of Odisha will be worst affected by  ‘Dana’ along with very heavy to extremely heavy rainfalls, while the 9 other districts of the state will also experience heavy rainfalls under its impact.

All air services from and to Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar have been cancelled from 5 this evening till 9 tomorrow morning. People living in low-lying areas in coastal areas are being shifted to multipurpose cyclone centres.

All schools, colleges, universities, and many government institutions have been closed till Friday. Leaves of doctors and government employees have been cancelled, while a large number of passenger trains have also been cancelled. Fishermen have been banned from entering the sea.