INDIA : Ministers said on Thursday that at least 1.1 million people on India’s eastern coast are fleeing to storm shelters inland, just hours before a powerful cyclone is expected to hit the low-lying area.
Twister Dana is probably going to stir things up around town of West Bengal and Odisha states — home to around 150m individuals — as a “serious cyclonic tempest” late on Thursday, India’s climate department said.
It projects winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour.
Overnight, major airports will be closed, including Kolkata, a crucial travel hub where heavy rain was already falling on the sprawling megacity.
The storm’s center is expected to make landfall early on Friday, approximately 230 kilometers southwest of the megacity Kolkata, near the coal-exporting port of Dhamra.
It is also anticipated to have an effect on Bangladesh, a low-lying neighbor, where the interim government’s leader, Muhammad Yunus, stated that “extensive preparations” are being made.
Scattered sections of the coast are anticipated to be inundated by crushing waves, with water predicted to rise up to 6.5 feet (two meters) above normal tide levels.
According to AFP, “nearly a million people from the coastal areas are being evacuated to cyclone centers,” according to Mukesh Mahaling, the state health minister for Odisha.
Bankim Chandra Hazra, a government minister in the neighboring state of West Bengal, stated: So far, more than 100,000 people have been moved to safer locations.
Businesses in Puri, a well-known beach resort, have been instructed to close to “save lives” and tourists have been instructed to leave.
Siddharth Swain, the district magistrate for Puri, stated, “All efforts are being made to face the cyclone and save lives.”
According to Pravat Ranjan Beuria, director of the Kolkata airport, flights will be canceled overnight on Thursday because of “predicted heavy winds and heavy to very heavy rainfall.”
The same will be done at the Bhubaneshwar airport, as have numerous trains and ferries from Kolkata ordered to stay in port.
According to Bangladesh disaster minister Faruk-i-Azam, authorities were on “high alert,” but no evacuation orders had been issued because it was anticipated that India would experience the worst of the storm.
He stated, “We are closely monitoring the cyclone’s progress.”
In the northern Indian Ocean, cyclones, which are similar to hurricanes in the North Atlantic and typhoons in the northwest Pacific, are a frequent and deadly threat.
Climate change caused by burning fossil fuels has led to an increase in storm intensity, according to scientists.
Warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, which gives storms more energy and makes the winds stronger.
They are also able to hold more water because the air is warming up, which makes it rain more often.
However, significantly fewer people have died as a result of improved evacuation planning and better forecasting.
