Bhubaneswar, Oct 29 The Odisha government on Thursday deployed over 300 teams from different disaster response agencies for rescue operations in flood-hit Ganjam and eight other districts, as cyclone ‘Arnab’ left a trail of destruction in several parts of the state, officials said.
As many as 59,028 people, including 11,882 from Ganjam, have been evacuated to safety after their houses were inundated with floodwater, they said.
State Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said 313 teams comprising nine from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 60 from the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and 244 from the Fire Services Department, were engaged in the rescue operations.
The evacuated people include 3,001 pregnant women, he said.
“Ganjam district has the highest deployment, with 45 ODRAF teams and seven NDRF teams, followed by Gajapati district, where 12 ODRAF teams and one NDRF team are operational,” Pujari said.
At least seven other districts – Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Kandhamal – have also been impacted by the cyclone, the minister said.
Chief Secretary Anu Garg said around 300 villages in Ganjam district were affected by floods, with 70 of them marooned. She also said the state government coordinated with the Union Home Ministry to facilitate air evacuation, as the NDRF and ODRF rescue teams could not reach certain places due to the volume of water.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Rajesh P Patil said an Indian Coast Guard helicopter completed its first sortie on Thursday afternoon, airlifting marooned people, and was following it up with further rounds.
At least 36 trains were cancelled and nearly 30 others diverted, as rail tracks remained submerged in the east-coast section, while vehicular traffic on National Highway-16 was disrupted after floodwater from the Bahuda river inundated a portion of the road near the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border, the officials said.
Around 300 metres of National Highway-326 has been washed away in Mohana block of Gajapati district, disrupting connectivity with Ganjam, they said.
Garg said the Odisha government has started airlifting 2,328 people from 70 villages in Ganjam district, which have been cut off from the rest of the state.
In Gajapati district, 711 villages have been affected by heavy rain and flash floods, with 25 rescue teams shifting 17,441 people to safer places, she said.
The state government has also announced that Anganwadi centres and educational institutes in the two districts will remain closed till October 31.
Garg said the amount of rainfall that Ganjam and Gajapati districts received in the past few days was similar to what the region experiences in a whole year.
While Patrapur in Ganjam recorded 546-mm rainfall till Thursday morning, G Udayagiri in Kandhamal received 462.4-mm rainfall, followed by Sanakhemundi (388 mm), Raikia (384.8 mm) and Sorada (375 mm), she said.
“Many rivers are in spate, making it difficult to operate boats. As many as 42,500 people in Ganjam and around 20,000 in Gajapati have been affected,” the chief secretary said.
Odisha’s Engineer-in-Chief Dilip Kumar Rout said the Rushikulya river was flowing at 19 metres against the danger mark of 16.8 metres in Purosottampur.
“The water level is expected to rise further,” he said, adding that the downpour also triggered landslides in several districts.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said he had spoken to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and briefed him on the impact of cyclone ‘Arnab’ across Odisha, and the relief and restoration measures being undertaken by the government.
“He assured us of all possible assistance to Odisha. The support and cooperation of the Government of India will further strengthen our efforts to protect lives, support affected families and expedite relief, rehabilitation and restoration across the state,” Majhi said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, former CM and opposition BJD chief Naveen Patnaik said in a social media post: “The fast erosion of Odisha’s disaster management leadership is a warning we ignore at our own peril. As we will continue to be prone to disasters, any dilution of the hard-won disaster preparedness will threaten the safety of our people and our economic progress.
(PTI News)
