Cyclone Dana spares Odisha, Bengal of major damage, brings heavy rains

Bhubaneswar/Kolkata: Cyclone Dana spared Odisha and West Bengal of any severe damage to infrastructure while flight and rail operations resumed on Friday after the cyclonic storm completed landfall, triggering heavy rains and uprooting of trees and electric poles.

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi asserted that no fatality report has been received so far and the state achieved its 'zero casualty mission', while West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said one person died due to the natural calamity.

The severe cyclonic storm Dana completed its landfall around 8.30 am on Friday and the system took at least eight and half hours to enter the landmass, the IMD said.

The landfall of 'Dana' started around 12.05 am on Friday between Bhitarkanika in Kendrapara and Dhamra in Bhadrak district of Odisha with wind speeds of around 110 kmph.

Majhi, who reviewed the cyclone situation in Bhubaneswar this morning, announced that the state has achieved its "zero casualty mission" as there has been "no report regarding any loss of human life or injury in the severe cyclonic storm".

The chief minister said all the roads blocked by uprooted trees would be cleared during the day as the rescue team personnel had already started working as soon as the intensity of wind reduced on Thursday night.

Majhi said many electrical installations like poles and transformers were damaged and were being repaired.

"By 6 pm on Friday, electricity will be restored in all places including the worst-hit Kendrapara, Balasore and Bhadrak district," he said.

The West Bengal CM on Friday said that one person died in the state in cyclone Dana even as the administration evacuated around 2.16 lakh people from the low-lying areas.

Banerjee, who held a review meeting at the state secretariat Nabanna after spending the night there to monitor the situation, directed the officials to ensure that relief materials reach all those affected by the cyclone.

"Only one person died in this natural disaster. The man died at his residence while conducting some cable-related work. It is quite unfortunate. The postmortem examination will give us a clear picture. If required we (state government) will help the family," Banerjee said.

Heavy rains packed with gusty winds lashed parts of southern West Bengal.

In various parts of Mandarmani in Purba Medinipur and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas district, waterlogging has been reported, compounding the misery of the affected residents.

The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but initial reports suggested that the storm brought heavy rains, which continued till Friday, causing inundation in low-lying areas.

Thirteen teams from the state's disaster management force and 14 battalions from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in the Bengal coastal regions, the officials said.

Flight operations resumed at Kolkata airport in West Bengal from 8 am on Friday after being suspended since Thursday evening in view of the cyclonic storm.

Train services on the south section of the Sealdah Division under the Eastern Railway also restarted at 10 am after scheduled cancellations due to the cyclone, they said.

Flight and train services also resumed in Bhubaneswar on Friday morning even though cyclone Dana tore through the Odisha coast since midnight.

Biju Patnaik International Airport here restarted its operation with the first flight landing around 9 am, Majhi told reporters.

The East Coast Railway (ECoR), in a statement, said trains started running as per schedule, barring those cancelled earlier in its jurisdiction.

The ECoR cancelled around 203 trains as a precautionary measure for the cyclone Dana.

Trains coming from Visakhapatnam, Howrah and Kharagpur to Bhubaneswar have started running, an ECoR official said.

A train on the Kharagpur-Visakhapatnam route would arrive at Bhadrak Station at 2 pm, the ECoR said.

The railway authorities informed that trains scheduled to originate from Bhubaneswar and Puri would commence their journey after noon on Friday, except the notified cancelled trains.

Large parts of Kolkata faced severe waterlogging during the morning hours of Friday as cyclone Dana brought torrential rain in its aftermath, inundating areas across the city.

According to the regional Met office in Alipore, Kolkata received over 100 mm of rainfall till 11.30 am on Friday over the previous 24 hours.

Knee-deep water at several thoroughfares in south and central parts of the city hampered traffic movement in Bhawanipur, New Market, Hazra, Dharmatala, and Behala areas.

Reports of waterlogging were also received from Thanthania Kalibari, Mahatma Gandhi Road, VIP Road, Park Circus, Dum Dum and parts of New Town in the northern and eastern parts of the city.

Significant flooding was also seen inside the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters in Esplanade area, while patients, staff and health workers were found wading through ankle-deep water at SSKM Hospital, one of the state's primary referral hospitals, causing major inconvenience to visitors and triggering apprehensions of spread of water-borne infections.

Rainwater accumulation was also noticed at the OPD wing of the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, another state-run tertiary healthcare facility in the city.