Cyclone ‘Dana’ to hit Odisha; Bengal braces for severe weather with 120 km/h wind speed

Kolkata: The cyclonic storm ‘Dana’, that had formed over east-central Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, will intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm over northwest Bay of Bengal and make landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra port in Odisha early Friday morning with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The cyclone lay 520 km southeast of Paradip and 600 km south-southeast of Sagar Island at 8.30 am on Wednesday, IMD stated.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy downpours will occur in isolated places in the south Bengal districts of North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly on October 24 and 25.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been keeping a close watch on the evolving situation in the coastal districts.

Senior government officials are keeping a tab on the developments from the round-the-clock control room functional at state secretariat Nabanna. The Public Address system is being used in the coastal districts to alert people.

The special control room at Nabanna has been working round the clock at 1070 and 033-22143526.

All air services have been suspended from Kolkata NSCB International Airport from 6 pm of Thursday to 9 am on Friday due to the prediction of severe gusts. Eastern Railway authorities have decided to suspend suburban train services from Sealdah terminal from 8 pm on Thursday and 10 am on Friday, while South Eastern Railway authorities have cancelled 140 long-distance mail and express trains and 40 suburban local trains due to the gusts and inclement weather.

Heavy rains have already started lashing several south Bengal districts from today, particularly along the coast of Bay of Bengal, as the state braces for severe cyclonic storm Dana’s landfall in neighbouring Odisha.

Heavy showers lashed several areas of East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas districts, with Kolkata also receiving smart spells of downpours.

The Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata have said that spells of rains will only intensify as the severe cyclonic storm Dana nears the coastline.

“The deep depression over Bay of Bengal, which will turn into a severe cyclone, remained around 540 km from Sagar Islands and is moving in a northwesterly direction at a speed of about 12 km per hour.

The system is around 490 km from Dhamara and 460 km from Paradeep in Odisha,” said a senior official of the Alipore MeT office on Wednesday afternoon.

“When the storm makes landfall, the eye will spread across a radius of around 150 km and will encompass many parts of East Midnapore. We expect the system to make landfall in the early Friday morning and gusts of around 120 kmph with storm surge in the sea. Several parts of Sunderbans in South 24-Parganas will also be affected due to the weather system.

Gusts of around 80 kmph are expected in Kolkata from the evening of Thursday to Friday morning,” the weather official added.

State disaster management department officials said, nine teams of NDRF and 13 teams of SDRF have been deployed in seven districts. Out of these, three companies of NDRF and four companies of SDRF have been deployed in South 24-Parganas. Two companies of NDRF and one company of SDRF have been deployed in North 24-Parganas.

Three companies of NDRF and two companies of SDRF have been stationed in East Midnapore, one company NDRF and two companies SDRF in West Midnapore.

A company SDRF is in Jhargram, two companies SDRF in Howrah and a company of SDRF has been deployed in Hooghly.

Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea from October 23 to 25.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said it is on high alert and has mobilised its vessels and aircraft to respond swiftly to any contingency over the Bay of Bengal.

Meanwhile, a statement from Raj Bhavan stated that a task force and control room to assist the public in this hour of need has been set up.

Governor CV Anand Bose called an emergency meeting of experts and the core team in the afternoon of October 23, at the Raj Bhavan.

Raj Bhavan has opened a 24x7 control room with phone number: 033-22001641; e-mail: [email protected].