Cyclone Dana: Homes evacuated on India's east coast before storm's landfall

Thousands of residents evacuated their homes on India’s east coast on Wednesday as a cyclone hurtled towards land with wind speeds expected to reach 100kph. Cyclone Dana, named by Qatar and meaning "generosity" in Arabic, is currently brewing in the Bay of Bengal and is likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm, experts said.

It is expected to make a landfall on the coasts of the eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal between Thursday evening and Friday morning, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

“It is very likely to move northwestward and intensify into a severe cyclonic storm over north-west Bay of Bengal by the early morning of the 24th and cross the north Odisha and West Bengal coasts between Puri and Sagar Island during the night of the 24th to the morning of the 25th October as a severe Cyclonic Storm,” the IMD said.

Authorities in Odisha and West Bengal have ramped up precautions, evacuating people from vulnerable coastal areas and deploying rescue and disaster relief teams and coastguard personnel. Schools and other educational institutions have been closed until Friday and fishermen have been advised not to venture out to sea.

Odisha has set up more than 5,000 relief centres and is evacuating about a million people from over 14 coastal districts, Suresh Puri, the state disaster management minister told the media, adding that arrangements were made for the provision of food, drinking water, lighting, sanitation, and health facilities to the evacuees.

The cyclone has brought heavy rainfall and gusty winds, disrupting rail services in the state. More than 200 trains have been cancelled. Similar evacuations were being carried out in West Bengal state, with authorities putting at least seven coastal districts on alert and asking some 100,000 residents to move to safety.

India’s coastline along the Bay of Bengal – the largest bay in the world – is a hotbed of tropical cyclones and is prone to extreme climatic events. Eight of the 10 deadliest tropical cyclones on record have originated over the Bay of Bengal, according to a list by Weather Underground.

In the last two decades, Odisha, which has 47 million people, has encountered 10 cyclones including super cyclones that have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions living along the coastline. It was devastated by the Great Orissa Cyclone in 1999, which killed 10,000 people.

However advancements in weather predictions and cyclone warning systems have in recent years enabled authorities to minimise the damage by enacting timely measures, including mass evacuations from vulnerable areas.