Severe cyclone 'Dana' begins landfall process on Odisha coast: IMD

The landfall process of severe cyclonic storm 'Dana' began on Odisha coast on Thursday night and was expected to continue till Friday morning, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore and nearby Jagatsinghpur district witnessed sudden increase in wind speed which reached 100 kmph to 110 kmph and extremely heavy rain. A revenue department official said reports of trees getting uprooted were also received at the office of the Special Relief Commissioner here. However, there was no report of any major damage or casualty so far even as the landfall process started more than an hour ago, the official said. The storm moved north-northwest at a speed of 15 kmph over the past six hours before making landfall between Bhitarkanika in the Kendrapara district and Dhamra in Bhadrak, with wind speeds of around 110 kmph, a senior IMD official said. The landfall process has commenced and the forward sector of the wall cloud region is .