Trees and power lines flattened as Cyclone Dana hits India

BALASORE, India: Cyclone Dana tore the roofs off homes and flattened trees and power lines after making landfall on Friday on India´s east coast, but did not appear to have caused significant casualties.

Cyclones -- the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific -- are a regular and deadly menace in the northern Indian Ocean. At least 1.1 million people in the states of Odisha and West Bengal were relocated to storm shelters before the eye of the cyclone reached the coast just after midnight.

District official Siddarth Swain told AFP that the storm had left a “trail of destruction” in the coastal town of Puri. “Many trees and electric poles are uprooted,” he added. “Makeshift shops on the sprawling beach have been blown away.”

No casualties have been reported so far. Dana flooded parts of the coast after triggering a surge in sea levels of up to 1.15 metres. As of landfall, the storm had gusting winds up to 120-kms per hour, Kolkata-based weather bureau forecaster Somenath Dutta told AFP.

The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, was hit by a “gale force wind” that caused hundreds of trees to be uprooted, West Bengal minister Bankim Chandra Hazra told AFP. “The cyclone also damaged hundreds of homes, blowing off roofs in coastal areas,” he added.

Major airports were shut on Thursday night including in Kolkata, India´s third-biggest city and a key travel hub, which was lashed by heavy rains. Flights had resumed from the city by Friday morning, as well as in the Odisha state capital Bhubaneshwar.

Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world heats up due to climate change driven by burning fossil fuels. Warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapour, which provides additional energy for storms, strengthening winds.

A warming atmosphere also allows storms to hold more water, boosting heavy rainfall. But better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced death tolls.

In May, Cyclone Remal killed at least 48 people in India and at least 17 in Bangladesh, according to government figures. Cyclone Amphan, the second “super cyclone” recorded over the Bay of Bengal, killed more than 100 people in Bangladesh and India, and affected millions when it hit in 2020.

The worst recorded cyclone to hit the region, in 1970, killed hundreds of thousands of people.”We have evacuated approximately 50,000 people so far, and a total of around 300,000 people are likely to be evacuated,” Special Relief Commissioner Deoranjan Kumar Singh said.

Neighbouring West Bengal state has also issued a red alert for three districts located close to the area where the cyclone is expected to make landfall, officials said. The state’s capital city of Kolkata remained overcast on Thursday with short spells of rain.

Severe storms lash coastal cities in India and neighbouring Bangladesh during the cyclone season from April to December each year, causing extensive damage. Odisha’s worst cyclone in recent years was in 1999, which raged for 30 hours and killed 10,000 people. At least 16 people were killed when a cyclone lashed India and Bangladesh in May, packing speeds of up to 135 kmph.