Bhubaneswar, Sep 25 A deep depression lashed Odisha with heavy rain on Friday, with at least 63 places recording over 100 mm of rainfall and three over 300 mm, forcing authorities to close schools in some districts as rivers swelled, landslides occurred, big trees got uprooted, more areas waterlogged and houses damaged.
Around 14,500 people living in low-lying and landslide-prone areas in the southern and western regions of the coastal state have been shifted to 2,061 relief centres where cooked food is being served, while pregnant women were shifted to hospitals, a minister said.
The deep depression that made landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast a day ago entered Odisha, causing heavy to very heavy rain in 24 hours until 8.30 am on Friday. Tentulikhunti in Nabarangpur district was the wettest at 395 mm rainfall, followed by Nandahandi at 344 mm, and Boriguma in Koraput district at 307.8 mm rainfall.
The calamity hit 10 districts, including Koraput, Malkangiri, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Rayagada in south Odisha, and Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Bolangir in the western region, paralysing normal life, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said.
At 189, Gajapati district has the highest number of villages affected by rain-related incidents followed by 58 in Ganjam.
A total of 857 villages have been affected across the state, and 14,479 people shifted to safety.
With incessant rainfall lashing the state since Tuesday, the water levels of Jalaka and Budhabalanga rivers in Balasore district, and Baitarani and Kani rivers in Jajpur district have already crossed their danger levels, threatening another bout of floods. The state has already suffered two rounds of floods since the start of the monsoon in June this year.
“Though water levels have increased in many rivers and crossed the danger mark in certain places, it may not cause any major flood now. The rain intensity has declined across the state,” Water Resources Department engineer-in-chief Dilip Kumar Rout said.
Rescue teams have also been engaged to clear roads blocked by uprooted trees and landslides.
Officials in Malkangiri said 2,259 people were rescued from vulnerable areas, bridges collapsed, affecting road communication. Water was flowing over NH 326, stranding hundreds of vehicles. Several houses in Poteru were also inundated.
In Kendrapara, a portion of the newly built NH 53 caved in at Hazari Chhak. No vehicle was moving or parked at the spot when the incident happened.
Incessant rain led to the cave-in, NHAI regional officer Pradeep Kumar Lal said, dismissing charges of poor quality of construction.
In Kandhamal, a landslide took place in Kalinga Ghat, bringing down with it 200 metres of a guard wall. In Khallikote’s Bada Ghati, boulders fell on NH 16, disrupting traffic.
Several roads in Mohana area of Gajapati district were also blocked by landslides. In Rayagada, uprooted trees blocked roads at several locations, while landslides on railway tracks affected train services in Rayagada division of the East Coast Railway Zone.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its latest bulletin, said the deep depression has weakened into a depression and moved out of Odisha and was centred close to south-southeast of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
However, the Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, forecast heavy rainfall in Sundergarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada and Nabarangpur, and other districts till 8.30 am of Saturday.
(PTI News)
