BHUBANESWAR: Odisha continued to experience intense monsoon activity as a well-marked low pressure area over northwest Bay of Bengal triggered widespread downpour over the last two days.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), extremely heavy rainfall occurred at two places, very heavy at 10 and heavy at 69 places in the last 24 hours. Banki recorded the maximum rainfall of 210 mm followed by Angul 206 mm, Talcher 195 mm and Tigiria 171 mm.
With the Rath Yatra festival commencing in Puri on Thursday, the pilgrim town received 216.8 mm rains in the last 48 hours (July 14 and 15).
The IMD said the system is likely to move northwestwards across north Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal during next two days and trigger heavy to very heavy rainfall in Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Nuapada and Balangir districts on Friday. Weather experts said the impact of the system is likely to wane from Sunday.
In response to the heavy deluge, Odisha Fire and Emergency Service mounted a swift operation during Rath Yatra in Puri. The department deployed 58 powerful pumps to drain rainwater in the town. Keeping in mind the convenience of devotees, fire personnel actively carried out de-watering works in at least 60 affected places in the district in the last two days.
The fire personnel also attended to incidents like tree falls, road obstructions and de-watering operations in Baripada, Jajpur, Puri, Bhadrak, Kalahandi, Phulbani, Rayagada, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Sundargarh districts on the day.
They were involved in a total of 26 de-watering operations in the Twin City of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. In Dhenkanal, seven persons were successfully rescued from the waterlogged Balaramprasad area by the Hindol Road fire station personnel. Food packets were distributed in the affected areas under the supervision of the BDO and tehsildar.
Due to two weather systems forming within a span of two weeks, Odisha has recorded 410.8 mm rains between June 1 and July 16 against the normal 370.9 mm, registering an 11 per cent departure. Several districts are in the large excess category including Boudh (+125 pc), Sonepur (+91 pc), Kendrapara (+74 pc), Dhenkanal (+66 pc) and Kandhamal (+69%).
Many other districts such as Cuttack, Khurda, Balangir, Angul, Nayagarh and Jagatsinghpur received excess showers since June 1. However, western and southern districts like Sundargarh, Deogarh, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Gajapati continue to remain deficient.