Trees and power lines felled by Cyclone Dana in India October 25, 2024

Cyclone Dana hit the West Bengal and Odisha coasts in India on October 24, 2024. PHOTO: AFP

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Trees and power lines felled by Cyclone Dana in India

Cyclone Dana tore roofs off houses and knocked down trees and power lines after it hit India's east coast on Friday, but it does not appear to have caused any significant casualties.

Cyclones - the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwest Pacific - are a regular and deadly threat in the northern Indian Ocean.

At least 1.1 million people in the states of Odisha and West Bengal were moved to storm shelters before the eye of the cyclone hit the coast shortly after midnight.

District officer Siddarth Swain told AFP that the storm had left a “trail of destruction” in the coastal town of Puri.

“Many trees and electric poles were uprooted,” he added. “Makeshift stores on the long beach were destroyed.”

So far, no casualties have been reported.

Dana flooded parts of the coast after causing a rise in sea level of up to 1.15 meters (3.75 feet).

When it reached the coast, the storm had winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour, meteorologist Somenath Dutta from the Calcutta Meteorological Agency told AFP.

West Bengal minister Bankim Chandra Hazra told AFP that the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, was hit by a “strong wind” that uprooted hundreds of trees.

“The cyclone also damaged hundreds of houses, tearing off roofs in coastal areas,” he added.

The main airports were closed on Thursday night, including in Kolkata, India's third largest city and a major travel hub, which was hit by heavy rains.

Flights resumed from the city on Friday morning, as well as in the Odisha state capital, Bhubaneshwar.

Scientists have warned that storms are becoming stronger as the world warms due to climate change, which is driven by the burning of fossil fuels.

Warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, which provides additional energy for storms, strengthening the winds.

The warming atmosphere also allows storms to retain more water, increasing heavy rainfall.

However, better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have drastically reduced the number of deaths.

In May, Cyclone Remal killed at least 48 people in India and at least 17 in Bangladesh, according to government data.

Cyclone Amphan, the second recorded “super cyclone” in the Bay of Bengal, killed more than 100 people in Bangladesh and India and affected millions of people when it hit in 2020.

The worst cyclone on record to hit the region in 1970 killed hundreds of thousands of people.

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