With rivers frothing across north, south and coastal regions following heavy rains triggered by the deep depression over the Bay of Bengal, district administrations continued to evacuate people from vulnerable areas and stepped up rescue and relief operations.
In Balasore and Mayurbhanj, 23 blocks were affected by the flood in the Budhabalanga, Subarnarekha and Jalaka rivers. Balasore bore the brunt, with over 2 lakh people affected in 541 villages under 92 gram panchayats and 36 wards of three urban local bodies.
The situation was aggravated after Jharkhand opened 13 spillway gates of the Galudih barrage on Saturday, releasing 5,513 cubic metres per second into the Subarnarekha. It led to severe flooding in Bhograi and Baliapal and partially affected Jaleswar. The Jalaka river was flowing at 6.76 metre against the danger level of 6.50 metre at Mathani, while the Subarnarekha river stood at 11.09 metre against the danger mark of 10.36 metre at Rajghat.
District emergency officer Chinmay Kumar Rout said NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Services teams had evacuated 49,590 people from flood-hit areas and shifted them to shelters.
Five Fire Services personnel sustained injuries after coming in contact with a live wire dangling from the Gola Polo bridge while on their way to a flood-hit area for evacuation. They were admitted to Balasore district headquarters hospital.
In Jajpur, two breaches in the embankment of the Kani river, a branch of the Baitarani, inundated at least 12 panchayats in Dasarathapur and Binjharpur blocks, affecting over 67,144 people in 42 villages.
A nearly 100-foot breach at Dhobabil Patana occurred on Friday at the same location where an embankment breach had developed during the July 28 floods. Although the breach had reportedly been plugged earlier this month by Water Resources department, the sandbags were washed away by floodwater. Another breach near Tarapada village occurred on Saturday, inundating several villages and thousands of acres of farmland and damaging standing paddy crops.
In Malkangiri, the flood situation improved. Collector Prathamesh Arvind Rajeshirke said the situation was under control. However, 86 houses, 46 electricity poles, 12 transformers and 15 rural roads were damaged, affecting power supply to around 12,000 consumers. As many as 2,409 people were evacuated and provided cooked food through 25 free kitchens.
Floodwaters from the Indravati, Kolab, Jhanjabati and Patali rivers continued to maroon nearly 50 villages in six blocks of Koraput. Around 5,100 people were shifted to shelter houses, while 184 houses were damaged. Collector Manoj Satyawan Mahajan said round-the-clock relief operations were underway.
In Bhadrak, five blocks and two urban local bodies were affected, with 1.15 lakh people in 177 villages impacted. Around 7,288 people were evacuated and provided dry food. Twenty-two free kitchens have been opened, with 120 quintal of flattened rice and 27.54 quintals of jaggery distributed. No loss of life or house damage was reported.
Meanwhile, the Hirakud dam authorities opened four more sluice gates, taking the total number of operational gates to 20. At 6 pm, the reservoir level stood at 628.89 feet against the full reservoir level of 630 feet. The average inflow was 1,56,168 cusec, against an outflow of 3,59,464 cusec.
In Ganjam and Gajapati, relief arrived after four days of intermittent heavy rain came to an end, though several pockets remained marooned. Ganjam collector V Keerthi Vasan said the situation was improving, with water levels in all rivers receding.
The Rushikulya Rayat Mahasabha, however, sought a special package for farmers, saying hundreds of hectares of cropland remained waterlogged and paddy and vegetable crops damaged.