Odisha floods: Marooned in school, 600 students rescued in Cuttack

Fire service, ODRAF personnel move the children and staff of Cuttack Sadar-based Saraswati Vidya Mandir to safety
Stranded students being rescued by fire and ODRAF personnel
Stranded students being rescued by fire and ODRAF personnel

CUTTACK: Nearly 600 students and 100 staff of Saraswati Vidya Mandir at Keshab Dham near Gatiroutpatana under Cuttack Sadar block were left marooned after the management allegedly did not allow them to move out despite an emerging flood situation in Mahandi river on Tuesday. All the children and staff members were rescued by fire service personnel and ODRAF team by the night. The students have been sheltered at nearby schools and will be handed over to their parents/guardians on Wednesday morning.

Even as the swelling Mahanadi had started flooding the residential school since 8 am, head of the institution allegedly did not allow parents to take their children to safety. The situation worsened around afternoon when the three-storey school building - located in a low-lying area close to the river and 1 km away from the main road at Gatiroutpatana - was completely marooned.

At around 2 pm, the district administration intervened to evacuate the children. Cuttack Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani rushed to the spot and ordered immediate evacuation following which both fire service personnel and ODRAF team were engaged with deployment of seven power boats. The rescue operation began at 2.30 pm and by evening 580 children were rescued. By late evening, the staff members, too, were taken out to safety.

“Anticipating flood, I reached the school at about 10 am to take my son to home. But the Pradhan Acharya did not allow students to leave the hostel,” said father of a student, on conditions of anonymity.Informing that the head of the school did not allow students to leave, Chayani said a show cause will be served on him seeking an explanation as to why he had not evacuated the residential school before things worsened. “We had to forcibly carry out the rescue operation and nearly 100 personnel were engaged,” he added.

Close shave for four persons
In another incident, four persons including the driver of a car narrowly escaped after their vehicle was swept away in flood waters in Athagarh on Monday night. The incident occurred at around 11 pm when one Haladhar Das of Angul along with his wife Mamata Das and son Shiba Sundar Das were returning home from Puri through the Puruna Cuttack-Sambalpur road, the same route they had taken in the morning.

Sources said the car driver failed to judge the depth and current of the flood water flowing on the road at Nidhipur Gada near Ghantikhal, and that is when the car skidded off the road and was swept away for about 250 mtrs. Luckily, the car got stuck between two concrete structures reportedly erected to support pipeline for supply of water to a nearby industry, as a result all the four occupants were able to come out of the submerged vehicle and remained stranded atop it for about three hours.

On being informed, fire service personnel rushed to the spot and rescued them around 3 am. Meanwhile, the submerged car was retrieved from the flood water with the help of locals on Tuesday.

Over 50 rescued in Capital City
Odisha Fire Service personnel rescued over 50 persons from flood waters in various areas of the Capital City on Tuesday. A pregnant woman and an elderly lady were among the five rescued from Pradhan Sahi in Jatni. Rescue operations were carried out in Balianta, Balipatna, near Hi-Tech Plaza in Sundarpada.
Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar Police advised the people staying in low-lying areas of the Capital city to shift to safer places.

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