BHUBANESWAR: Heavy rainfall over the last 24 hours brought normal life to a grinding halt across Odisha and triggered flash flood in several parts.
Major cities and towns including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri experienced unprecedented water-logging causing acute misery to the people.With Met Department predicting heavy to very heavy spell of rain for another 48 hours, the situation is expected to turn more serious.
Keeping this in view, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who convened a review meeting at Secretariat, asked all officials concerned to open 24-hour control rooms at district level and keep an eye on the situation. The State Government has cancelled Sunday holiday for all its employees.
As per reports, the incessant rainfall has caused floods in South Odisha including Malkangiri, Kalahandi and Rayagada districts even as many places have been cut off in several districts due to widespread inundation of roads and disruption in connectivity network. Two deaths due to wall collapse have been reported from Rayagada.
Situation in Malkangiri has become grave with communication disrupted on NH-326 at Saptadhara bridge in Khairput block, Pangam bridge in Mathili block and some other places. Communication from Malkangiri to Kalimela and Kalimela to Podia was also disrupted while Bondaghati remained cut off. Flood in Indravati river has severely affected Kalahandi district with hundreds of people being stranded in cut-off areas.
The office of Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) said two ODRAF teams have been deployed while rescue operation is being carried out in Kalahandi district where many families in Kalampur block have been shifted to safer places.
The torrential downpour also affected the transport service with buses stuck on road and many trains being cancelled and regulated. Tourist and religious places including Puri, Konark, Alarnath temple and Mukteswar temple in Bhubaneswar were also flooded causing inconvenience for the visitors. Several areas in Puri including Grand road and Market Chhak were heavily waterlogged.
A day before the Bahuda Yatra, the return car festival of Lord Jagannath, the Bada Danda (Grand Road) on which the chariots will roll was completely submerged under knee-deep water leaving the devotees who thronged the pilgrim city in a lurch.
Meanwhile, the residents of Twin City Bhubaneswar and Cuttack experienced nightmarish situation since Friday night as localities and homes across the cities were inundated with storm water and overflowing drains. The Capital city yet again exposed the civic authorities’ unpreparedness and failure to control water-logging menace.
Many areas in the Capital including Jharpada, Gouri Nagar, Old Town, Nayapali Behera Sahi, Jagamara, Sailashree Vihar, Jaydev Vihar and Acharya Vihar were completely waterlogged mainly due to the inoperative drainage network.
Odisha Fire Service personnel were deployed in several areas of the City to rescue the citizens trapped in their flooded houses. BMC officials informed that 40 engineers, 13 nodal officers along with various teams were deployed in the Capital to control the damage and pump out the storm water. Schools have been closed down in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in view of the rains.