Cyclonic storm ‘Dana’ that emerged in the Bay of Bengal has now gained momentum. It has been raining heavily with strong winds in Odisha since Thursday morning. According to the Meteorological Department, Cyclone Dana is moving towards the northwest at a speed of 12 kilometers per hour.
The Meteorological Department said Storm Dana will hit near Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra port on Thursday night to Friday. Both are adjacent to Puri. During this period, there is a chance that the wind will blow at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour.
Cyclone Dana is likely to cross the northern coasts of Odisha and West Bengal on Friday morning. The maximum impact of this storm will occur in Odisha. More than 10 lakh people have to be evacuated ahead of the storm. Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi said that as of Wednesday morning, 30 per cent of the 10 lakh people have been evacuated.
Due to the storm, Railways has canceled more than 200 trains. 56 NDRF teams have been deployed in Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Of them, 21 teams are in Odisha and 17 in West Bengal.
In fact, when a storm hits, its impact is most visible in coastal states. But Odisha faces storms every year. This is where any storm has the greatest impact. An Odisha government report states that more than 260 storms have occurred here in 100 years.
But why only Odisha?
A storm occurs in the ocean when its surface water warms. The water heats up, explodes, and collides with the cold air above. On one side of India is the Arabian Sea and on the other side is the Bay of Bengal. The storm that formed in the Bay of Bengal is quite different from that in the Arabian Sea.
Most storms form only in the Bay of Bengal. This is because the Bay of Bengal is warmer than the Arabian Sea. There is a possibility of two major cyclonic storms occurring in the Bay of Bengal in a year. They usually fall between March to May and October to December.
At the same time, the geography of Odisha is such that it acts as a magnet for storms. Whenever a storm forms in the Bay of Bengal, it moves northwestward.
Odisha is located in a place where the coastline of India curves, so its coasts are the most affected by storms.
How can Odisha be managed?
Thunderstorms occur in Odisha every year. But in 1999 a storm arrived here that changed everything. It is also called ‘Super Cyclone’.
Government reports show that 9,885 people died in Odisha in that storm. 4.5 lakh animals also died. Not only this, more than 17 thousand schools and 12 thousand kilometers of roads were also destroyed.
Learning the lesson from this storm, the Odisha government has set a target of ‘zero casualties’. Firstly, the government formed the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA). This was the first state in the country where the Disaster Management Authority was formed. While at the central level, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was formed in 2005.
The Odisha government not only sensitized people about natural disasters but also provided training to deal with them.
What was the result of this?
It was the Odisha government’s years of hard work and preparations that pushed deaths due to the storm into double digits.
In the year 2013, a storm named ‘Phailin’ hit Odisha. This storm was also like the one in 1999. When this storm came, the wind was blowing at a speed of more than 250 kilometers per hour in Odisha. But the government was prepared and had already evacuated 11 lakh people from the affected areas. The result was that only 44 people died in that storm. Of them, 23 died due to flooding that occurred after the storm. The Odisha government was also honored by the United Nations for this.
Then, in 2014, the storm ‘Hudhud’ hit, resulting in two deaths. When Cyclone ‘Fanny’ hit in 2019, the government evacuated more than 12 lakh people from the affected areas.
How did all this happen?
Taking the lessons of the 1999 cyclone, the government has reached out to the grassroots level and trained the people. Even women in the villages have been trained to deal with storms and natural disasters. Even now drills are held twice a year, in June and November.
But you can’t weather the storm simply by training people. The government has also prepared infrastructure for this.
A World Bank report released last year states that the government has prepared a road network along the entire coastline in Odisha, which is used to evacuate people safely from affected areas. In addition, more than 800 shelter homes have also been built.
Dams have been built to prevent sea water from entering coastal towns. Houses have been prepared for people who lived in mud huts in the villages. Not only this, a warning system has also been installed in 1,200 towns in coastal areas, which warns through sirens in the event of a flood, storm or disaster. Surveillance towers have also been installed in more than 120 coastal areas.
