KEONJHAR/BHUBANESWAR: A staggering heat wave scorched Odisha only to be followed by a deadly spell of norwester in four districts which claimed three lives on Thursday.
Keonjhar bore the brunt as Naranpur, barely 6 km from the district headquarters town, was struck by tragedy after a tent collapsed, killing three youths. All the victims were workers.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh for family of each of the three deceased and expressed his condolences.
The norwester hit the area at around 3 pm, bringing down the huge tent. The workers were crushed under the iron frame of the tent after it collapsed under the might of the local storm.
The deceased were identified as Alok Chipindia (25), Sagar Nayak (24) and Pitambar Nayak (27).
A fourth person suffered injuries in the incident. Relief teams and police rushed to the scene and moved the four to the hospital.
Keonjhar apart, Cuttack, Jajpur and Khurda districts also reported strong wind and rain caused by the norwester. Apart from property damage, the summer rains led to outage of power too.
Earlier, Odisha saw one of the hottest days of the summer as 24 out of 38 stations of the state recorded above 40 degree C temperature. Jharsuguda remained the hottest place with maximum day temperature recording 45.5 degree C. Both Sambalpur and Balangir recorded 44.6 degree C.
In fact, the heat wave spared no part of the state. Western Odisha remained the hottest region while central regions, including the coal belt of Angul, saw equally intolerable conditions. The temperature deviation was in the range of 1 degree to 4.8 degree C.
