Over 3 lakh people evacuated as cyclone Dana heads towards Odisha

The Odisha government on Thursday said over 3 lakh people have been shifted to more than 7,000 shelters while over 2,300 pregnant women moved to hospitals as the state braces for yet another cyclone.
Chief minister Mohan Majhi chaired a meeting to take stock of cyclone preparedness, and said more than 7,000 cyclone shelters are ready and adequate medical and veterinary teams have been deployed.
“The state government is fully prepared to handle the impact of the cyclone. Our target is zero casualty. Work is underway to ensure hundred percent evacuation from all the low lying and vulnerable areas,” Majhi said.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said severe cyclonic storm Dana over northwest Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 13 kmph during past 6 hours and lay centred about 180 km southeast of Paradip (Odisha), 210 km south-southeast of Dhamara (Odisha) and 270 km south of Sagar Island (West Bengal) at 11.30 am.
IMD scientist Uma Shankar Das said the cyclone is very likely to move north-northwestwards and cross north Odisha and West Bengal coasts between Puri and Sagar Island close to Bhitarkanika and Dhamara (Odisha) early Friday morning as a severe Cyclonic Storm with a wind speed of 100-110 kmph gusting 120 kmph.
“The wind speed at the centre of Dana is around 95-105 kmph while the wind speed along the Odisha-West Bengal coast is 60-70 kmph. The wind speed will gradually increase and expected to reach 100-120 kmph between midnight today to tomorrow morning. Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore in Odisha are likely to experience the maximum wind speed,” he said.
“The storm is likely to dump heavy rains in coastal Odisha on October 24-25. There could be heavy to very heavy rainfall (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (>20cm) in Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Balasore, and Mayurbhanj districts till Friday morning while scattered heavy to very heavy rainfalls (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (>20cm) are very likely to occur at isolated places in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak districts till Saturday. The highest rainfall of 62.9 mm was recorded at Paradip, followed by 46.2 mm at Chandbali in Bhadrak district, 29.2 and 27.4 mm in Chandanpur and Nawana in Mayurbhanj while Rajkanika and Rajnagar in Kendrapada district received 27 and 24 mm rain, in the last four hours,” he said.