PURI: Puri town recorded its highest monsoon rainfall in 86 years with 341 mm rains in the last 24 years.
Astarang block received the highest 530 mm rains followed by Kakatpur 525 mm, Gop 331 mm, Satyabadi 328 mm, Nimapara 302 mm, Krushna Prasad 280 mm, Pipili 263 mm, Brahmagiri 240 mm, Delang 228 and Kanas 212 mm during the last 24 hours.
The average rainfall in the district stood at 149 mm, informed emergency officer JK Patra on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Sources said of the eleven blocks, Astarang, Kakatpur, Gop and Nimapara are the worst-hit. A total of 56 villages under 22 gram panchayats have been affected by the heavy downpour. Patra said of around 2,000 flood-hit people, 1,600 have been shifted to safer places.
Block officials, engineers of Irrigation department and tehsildars have been put on alert in their respective areas. The district emergency control room is operating round the clock. “There is no report of any casualty in the district or breach in river embankments. All rivers are flowing below the danger level. As directed by the Puri Collector, all schools across the district remained closed, “ Patra added. Meanwhile, around 20,000 families of Puri town, particularly those residing in slums, faced major inconvenience after rainwater entered their houses on the day.
Though the intensity of rain reduced from morning, the low-lying areas of the pilgrim town were inundated bringing misery for residents. The administration deployed heavy-duty pumps to drain out floodwater from Matitota and Baliapanda slums.The Mangala temple at Kakatpur and Sun temple at Konark were inundated due to the incessant rains. Sources said the pumps installed by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are not enough to drain out the one-metre water from Sun temple complex.