Authorities in India’s eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal are scrambling to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from coastal areas as a powerful cyclone, named Dana, barrels towards the region, The Associated Press reports.
The cyclone, currently churning over the Bay of Bengal, is expected to make landfall early Friday morning near the coal-exporting port of Dhamara, about 230km southwest of Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of wind speeds reaching 100-110km/h, gusting up to 120km/h.
Odisha’s health minister, Mukesh Mahaling, told AFP that “nearly a million people from the coastal areas are being evacuated to cyclone centres.” In neighboring West Bengal, evacuations of more than 100,000 people have begun, according to government minister Bankim Chandra Hazra.
With the eye of the storm predicted to make landfall between midnight (18:30 GMT on Thursday) and Friday morning, authorities have taken preemptive measures to minimize potential damage and casualties.
Flights to and from the capitals of both states, including Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, have been suspended from Thursday evening until Friday morning. The IMD has also urged fishing crews to stay off the water, with television footage showing fishermen rushing to secure their boats and homes.
Schools in areas expected to be hit by the storm have been closed in both states. In Odisha, authorities have canceled about 200 trains, according to local media reports. Tourists in coastal areas are being urged to leave beach resorts and move to shelters.
The impact of Cyclone Dana is also expected to be felt in neighboring Bangladesh, where the leader of the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, has announced “extensive preparations” are underway.
The storm is the latest in a series of cyclones that have ravaged India and Bangladesh during their annual cyclone season, which runs from April to December.
In 1999, Odisha was devastated by a cyclone that raged for 30 hours and claimed the lives of 10,000 people. In May of this year, another cyclone, with wind speeds reaching 135km/h, resulted in at least 16 deaths across India and Bangladesh.
