Bhubaneswar: Flights to and from the capitals of the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal, including Kolkata, will be suspended from Thursday evening to Friday morning, as the region braces for a cyclone scheduled to hit during that period, officials said.
Cyclone Dana, currently over the Bay of Bengal, is expected to cross the states’ coasts between midnight and Friday morning with wind speeds ranging between 100 and 110 km/h (62-68 m/h), and gusting to 120 km/h (75 m/h). hour). h), the Meteorological Department said.
The two states closed schools in areas expected to bear the brunt of the storm and asked fishermen not to go out to sea.
Television footage showed fishermen rushing to secure their thatched homes and boats with ropes, and officials escorting residents in coastal areas to shelters as winds and heavy rain lashed parts of Odisha on Thursday.
Adani Group’s Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district of the state has also suspended its operations.
“We have evacuated nearly 50,000 people so far and around 300,000 people are likely to be evacuated,” Special Relief Commissioner Durjanjan Kumar Singh said. Reuters.
The neighboring state of West Bengal has also issued a red alert for three districts located near the area where the cyclone is expected to reach, officials said.
The state capital, Kolkata, remained overcast on Thursday with short spells of rain.
Severe storms hit coastal cities in India and neighboring Bangladesh during the cyclone season from April to December every year, causing massive damage.
The worst cyclone to hit Odisha in recent years was in 1999, which lasted for 30 hours and killed 10,000 people.
At least 16 people were killed when a cyclone struck India and Bangladesh last May, at speeds reaching 135 kilometers per hour.