Floodwaters Enter Over 100 Villages In Odisha, People Forced To Abandon Their Homes
The flood situation is grim in Odisha as the state has been battling massive flood for the past 24 hours.?Mahanadi river continues to swell with over 1.5 lakh people in 237 villages being marooned, reported PTI citing a senior official.
2 lakh people, 100 villages & 10 districts
Floodwater even entered more than 100 villages across the state in the past 24 hours, forcing people to abandon their homes.?Season's first flood has affected more than two lakh people in 10 districts, while close to 27,000 people have been evacuated and taken to temporary shelters so far, said the official.
"The water level in Hirakud Dam stands at 626.47 feet against the full reservoir level of 630 feet. The reading at Mundali barrage near Cuttack declined to 11,77,024 cusecs against 12 lakh cusecs on Tuesday. We expect this water level to continue for another 24 hours," PTI quoted B K Mishra, Engineer in Chief, Water Resources Department, as saying.
Situation could be worse, here's why
He added that the situation could be even worse in the delta region comprising Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Khurda district.
The official said while above 6.24 lakh cusecs of flood water is entering into the reservoir, 6.81 lakh cusecs is being discharged through 40 gates at Hirakud dam.
Over 2 lakh people in 1,366 villages and nine urban local bodies in 10 districts along the Mahanadi basin have so far been affected by the flood triggered by a week-long, depression-induced rainfall.The flow of flood water has reached its peak in the Mahanadi delta region after midnight of Tuesday, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Jena.
Jena said breaches have been reported at two places in the Mahanadi river system - one in Makara river in Puri district and the other at Rajua Raiki in Khurda district.
MeT issued a warning
Officials said the flood situation in the state may worsen by the weekend with a low pressure forming over north-west Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast on August 19 and is expected to cause heavy rain in the state. The Met office has also issued a 'yellow warning' for heavy rainfall in 10 districts of north coastal Odisha on Wednesday.
They added schools in Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Nayagarh districts will remain shut on Wednesday and Thursday.
The leaves of all the government officials in Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Khurda, Angul, Boudh, Sonepur and Sambalpur districts have been cancelled for next seven days.
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