Trees and power lines flattened as Cyclone Dana hits India

Balasore, India: Cyclone Dana tore the roofs off homes and flattened trees and power lines after making landfall Friday on India s east coast, but did...

Balasore, India: Cyclone Dana tore the roofs off homes and flattened trees and power lines after making landfall Friday on India's east coast, but did not appear to have caused significant casualties.

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

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

District official Siddarth Swain told AFP that the storm had left a "trail of destruction" in the coastal town of Puri.

"Many trees and electric poles are uprooted," he added. "Makeshift shops on the sprawling beach have been blown away."