15 Districts Face Flood Situation, Says Odisha SRC

Bhubaneswar: More than 750 villages in Odisha have been affected by flood caused by major rivers following continuous rains for the last three days.

In a release on Thursday, the Special Relief Commissioner said the low-lying areas along rivers Baitarani, Brahmani and Mahanadi have faced flood-like situation after the incessant heavy rains. These rivers are in a spate in 15 districts in the state.

As many as 762 villages under 90 blocks of these districts including Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Keonjhar and Boudh are facing flood-like situation. Similarly, 66 wards in 17 urban local bodies (ULBs) have been flooded.

While around 1.2 lakh people have been affected, total 6,834 people have been rescued from inundated villages and shifted to safe shelters so far.

Dry and cooked food, drinking water and necessary medicines have been provided to the affected people. The local administrations have made arrangements to provide cooked food free of cost in 136 places.

In the Mahanadi system, the 4.72 lakh cusec floodwater was being released at Khairamal, 7.86 cusec at Baramula and 9.18 cusec at Mundali barrage in the evening. However, the outflow at Mundali has been steady since 4 pm, the SRC stated in the release.