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Flood woes continue in Orissa

Satyasundar Barik

16 killed, lakhs of villagers marooned and several rendered homeless

INUNDATED: Flood waters from the Daya river enter Balkati village in Khurda district of Orissa following the opening of 40 sluice-gates of the Hirakud dam on Friday and Saturday. — Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

BHUBANESWAR: More than 20 lakh people across 17 districts of Orissa were affected by severe floods in the Mahanadi River system on Saturday.

At least 16 persons were killed while lakhs of villagers were marooned by sea of floodwaters. Deaths were reported from Jajpur, Angul, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Bolangir districts.

District administrations and other volunteers evacuated 1,80,748 people after they were encircled by water. A helicopter of Indian Air Force rescued about 50 people who were stranded on a rooftop in Patkura area of Kendrapara district.

Hopes dashed

The flood dashed hopes of lakhs of farmers after more than 2.50 lakh ha crop area was inundated by water. At some places harvesting of paddy would have begun within a fortnight.

Four districts, which were witnessing flood fury, include Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Puri. Schools were declared shut till Tuesday while all government officials were asked not to leave their workplace even on Sunday.

Other districts, which came under the grip of this devastative flood caused by heavy rains under influence of a depression earlier this week, were Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, Gajapati, Boudh, Sonepur and Nayagarh.

People were seen fleeing to safer places as water discharge to downstream districts touched the record high. While in 1982, about 15.80 lakh cusecs of water was discharged through Mundali causing havoc, on Saturday the discharge was measured at 15.81 lakh cusecs during the day.

Water level in Hirakud Reservoir also posed challenge to flood managers. By the evening, water level was measured at 629.87 ft against the reservoir retention capacity of 630 ft. Forty gates were opened and 7.02 lakh cusecs of water was being released to downstream.

Water resource departments detected 28 breaches those had occurred on various embankments of rivers such as Mahanadi, Luna, Chitroptala, Bhargabi, Kathajodi and Kushabhadra. Busy Bhubaneswar and Puri road was closed for sometime as water overtopped the national highway near Pipili.

No less than Bihar

Giving details about damages caused by floods, State Revenue and Disaster Management Secretary G.V.V. Sharma said it was unprecedented and it could no way be termed less devastative than the flood that was witnessed in Bihar due to swelling Koshi River recently.

“We are closely tracking the flood situation. According to our estimation, water would take five more days to recede. Administration is doing its best to provide relief materials to the victims,” Mr. Sharma said.

Orissa asks Army to stand-by as flood situation worsens

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