Cyclone Dana's landfall process over after 8 hrs

The landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning and the system took at least eight and half hours to enter the landmass, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The IMD in its hourly bulletin said: "The landfall process has been completed."

The landfall of 'Dana' started at about 12.05 am on Friday and it took around eight and half hours to end the process. The landfall process was completed at around 8.30 am on Friday, an IMD scientist said.

The severe cyclone storm which hit the landmass at a wind speed of 110 kmph has weakened and has become a cyclonic storm.

The cyclone lay centered at about 50 km north-north west of Dhamra and 30 km of north east of Bhadrak town.

"The maximum sustained wind speed around the centre of the cyclone is about 80 kmph to 90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph," the IMD said.

The cyclone is likely to move northwestwards across north Odisha and weaken gradually into a deep depression during next six hours, the IMD said, adding that the system is under continuous surveillance of the Doppler weather radar at Paradip.

Flight, train services resume in Bhubaneswar

Flight and train services resumed in Bhubaneswar on Friday morning.

Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar resumed its operation with the first flight landing around 9 am, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi told reporters.

The airport operation was suspended from 5 pm on October 24 in view of cyclone Dana which made landfall between Dhamra and Bhitarkanika around midnight.

Though the airport authorities had decided to suspend services till 9 am on Friday, the operations resumed a bit early as the weather conditions improved, Airport Director Prasanna Pradhan said.

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 will arrive at Bhadrak Station at 2 pm, the ECoR said.

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

Kendrapara district escapes largely unscathed

People in Odisha's Kendrapara district, which was on the path of cyclone Dana, heaved a sigh of relief as the severe cyclonic storm largely spared the coastal district on Friday.

While there is no report of loss of life and property, tidal surges made inroads into some of the villages and agriculture fields have come to light, officials said.

"No loss of life has been reported so far. The loss of property has been minimal. We are hopeful of restoring normalcy shortly," said Kendrapara Collector, Smruti Ranjan Pradhan.

The Bhitarkanika National Park, which was home to the landfall spot, has largely been saved from the devastating aftermath of the cyclone though details from the park are yet to emerge, said an official.

The settlement colony at Bagapatia, housing the people displaced from their native land in Satabhaya due to sea erosion, has come under water inundation as tidal surge entered into the colony, he said.

The severe cyclone storm made landfall near Habelikhati nature camp in Bhitarkanika National Park as it had been forecast in advance by IMD.

"With adequate precautionary measures and timely evacuation, we have successfully withstood nature's fury with zero human casualty. The damage has been minimal with the cave-in of some kutcha houses. The uprooting of standing trees in several places of coastal Rajnagar block has disrupted the road communication," said Nishant Mishra, Block Development Officer of Rajnagar block in Kendrapara district.

However, road communication has largely been restored by ODRAF teams which cleared the uprooted trees, he said.

Kendrapara and neighbouring Bhadrak were on the path of 'Dana'. The government agencies had sounded alert well in advance evacuating people from vulnerable pockets. The cyclone, of course, impacted the district with strong velocity wind, heavy downpour, uprooting trees, damaging power infrastructures in some parts and blowing away scores of kutcha houses.

The villages that bore the brunt of the cyclonic storm are Talchua, Rangani, Keruapala, Baghamari, Dangamal, Iswarpur, Gupti and Satabhaya, said an official.

"By the grace of God, we are saved from nature's fury. The wind speed was less. Besides, we experienced heavy rain", said Ramakant Sahu, a local in a seaside Ramnagar village in Kendrapara district.

Cyclones are a recurring phenomenon here. We have taken nature's fury in our stride and have withstood the ups and downs of life with tenacity. Now with the worst fear over, we look forward to normal life, said Krutibash Pradhan, a local from Rajnagar in Kendrapara district.

Heavy rain accompanied by gusty wind caused considerable damage to the crops.

Though nature has been kind towards us this time in sparing us from cyclonic devastation, damage to agriculture is on a large scale. The crop fields are flooded.

Only after the rain subsides, we can assess the extent of damage, said Priyanath Pradhan, a farmer from Talchua village.