Bhubaneswar, Oct 23: As Cyclone ‘Dana’ barrels toward the Odisha coast, threatening to impact nearly half the state’s population, the government is racing against time to execute a massive evacuation plan aimed at relocating around 10 lakh people in 14 districts to safety.
The IMD on Wednesday said the cyclone is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra port, located around 70 km away from each other, early Friday.
It said that the landfall process will start from the night of October 24 and will continue till the morning of October 25. The maximum speed during the landfall process is likely to be around 120 kmph, IMD DG Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
He said landfall is mostly a slow process which usually takes around 5-6 hours. “Therefore, heavy rainfall, wind and storm surge will reach the peak during the landfall time which is between October 24 night and October 25 morning,” he added.
According to the latest IMD bulletin, the cyclone moved northwestwards with a speed of 13 kmph and lay centred about 490 km southeast of Paradip (Odisha), 520 km south-southeast of Dhamra (Odisha) and 570 km southsoutheast of Sagar Island (West Bengal).
During the landfall, a tidal surge of up to 2 metres is expected, with the cyclone reaching the coast at a wind velocity of 120 kmph, Umashankar Das, senior scientist at the regional meteorological centre in Bhubaneswar, said. (PTI)
