Cyclone ‘Dana’ Likely To Make Landfall Between Bhitarkanika & Dhamra In Odisha, Says IMD DG

Bhubaneswar: Severe Cyclone ‘Dana’ is moving on the pre-determined course towards Odisha coast and is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika in Kendrapada district and Dhamra in Bhadrak, said director general of IMD Mrutunjay Mohapatra on Thursday.

In an update on the cyclone, he said the cyclonic storm on the Bay of Bengal had intensified and was moving at a speed of 12 km per hour towards Odisha coast. Besides gaining momentum, it has assumed massive proportion and the intensity of the rain had also increased.

He further said moving in north-north-west direction, the severe cyclone is likely to hit land mass along Odisha coats between Thursday midnight and Friday morning. “The cyclone Dana lay centered over north-western Bay of Bengal at 200 km southeast of Paradip. It is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika and Dhamra,” he said.

While the eye of the storm was still not visible, the wind speed at the centre of the storm was estimated to be 95-105 kmph, he said. ““The wind speed is likely to gradually increase and expected to reach 100-120 kmph between midnight today to tomorrow morning,” he added.

Kendrapada and Bhadrak districts will be the worst affected as those will bear the brunt of the cyclone. Besides, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal and Jajpur would be affected by the cyclone, the IMD DG said.