West Bengal authorities have confirmed two additional fatalities from Cyclone Dana, bringing the death toll in the state to four. The storm made landfall early on Friday, October 25, 2024, triggering severe rainfall and winds that caused damage across Odisha and West Bengal.
According to officials, a civic volunteer, identified as Chandan Das, aged 31, was killed in Purba Bardhaman’s Bud Bud area. Das was reportedly on duty with a police team when he inadvertently touched a live wire, resulting in his immediate death. Additionally, a Howrah Municipal Corporation employee was found dead on a waterlogged road in Tantipara, with drowning suspected as the cause.
Reports of electrocution claimed two lives on Friday as well, with one person dying in Patharpratima in the South 24 Parganas district and another in south Kolkata’s Bhabanipur area, officials confirmed.
Cyclone Dana, classified as a severe storm, struck the eastern coast of India in the early hours of Friday with wind speeds reaching 110 km/h. The landfall began around 12:05 a.m. between Bhitarkanika in Kendrapara and Dhamra in Bhadrak district, Odisha, and continued until about 8:30 a.m. The cyclone’s impact has left widespread infrastructure and crop damage, with uprooted trees and electric poles disrupting normal life in both affected states.