Over 20 lakh displaced, 4 dead as rain wreaks havoc in Odisha

Heavy rain lashed across the state during the past 48 hours caused widespread damages; calamity has also caused severe damage to about 100 roads and left 25 villages marooned, people are being evacuated from low-lying areas

Bhubaneswar (Odisha):Four dead and over 20 lakh people displaced in Odisha as heavy rain lashed across the state during the past 48 hours under the impact of depression over the Bay of Bengal, informed the Special Relief Commissioner’s (SRC’s) Office.

The deep depression that wrecked havoc in Odisha for the past two days has also caused widespread destruction in many places.

The depression caused rain in all the 30 districts of the state. In the two days since Monday after the depression over the Bay of Bengal crossed Odisha coast near Bhadrak, the state received an average 155.9 mm rainfall triggering floods in urban and rural areas, the SRC office added.

The precipitation was the highest in Angul and Sonepur districts which received over 300 mm rainfall. Talcher in Angul district received the highest rainfall of 394 mm followed by 372 mm at Birmaharajpur in Sonepur district. Eighteen districts received rainfall in the range of 200 mm to 300 mm and the remaining ten received 100 to 200 mm rainfall.

The affected districts are Anugul, Baragarh, Balasore, Boudha, Cuttack, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Kendrapada, Keonjhar, Khorda, Koraput, Naygarh, Nuapada, Puri, Subarnpur.

The ‘Situation Report on Heavy Rain’ released to the media on Tuesday evening said that while two of the human casualties were due to wall collapse in Kendrapara district, the other was due to drowning in Khordha district and one death case came from Ganjam.

READ:Low pressure area forms over Bay of Bengal, likely to turn into depression

According to the report, a total of 20,46,122 people have been affected in 3,696 villages and 27 urban local bodies (ULBs) in 111 blocks across 20 districts.

The calamity has also caused severe damage to about 100 roads and left 25 villages marooned.

With the water levels of almost all rivers rising due to the heavy rain that pounded Odisha for the last 36 hours, the state government asked all the district collectors to evacuate people from low-lying areas. The engineer-in-chief of the water resources department, Dhiren Kumar Samal, however, said there was no such flood fear now.

Baitarani river was flowing at 18.30m against the danger level of 17.83m at Akhuapada and Jalaka river in Balasore district was flowing at 6.37m against the danger mark of 5.5m at Mathani.

Rivers like Mahanadi, Subarnarekha and Budhabalang though showing a rising trend are flowing much below the danger level, an official of the water resources department said adding that constant vigil is maintained at different places to avert destruction due to flooding.

The state government has declared heavy rain as a state-specific disaster due to which expenditure on relief measures, immediate repair and restoration of the damaged public infrastructure will be met from the State Disaster Response Fund.