Jajpur: Two electricity department employees were rescued after being stranded for over five hours by rising floodwaters from the Baitarani River in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Friday.
According to sources, the incident occurred after sudden water surges from the swelling Baitarani inundated an electrical sub-station campus at Rambag around 3 am. The two workers, who had been deployed on night duty at the sub-station, woke up to find the premises entirely surrounded by fast-flowing floodwaters, leaving them with no route to retreat.
Upon receiving information about the situation, personnel from the Odisha Fire Service were dispatched to the site with specialised rescue gear. Utilising heavy ropes and lifebuoys, rescue personnel waded into the submerged complex to establish a secure safety line connecting the sub-station to higher embankment grounds.
Both workers were fitted with life rings and carefully guided step-by-step through the floodwaters by the rescue team. Despite the strong currents and water reaching chest levels around the facility gates, the rescue team successfully extracted both individuals along with their personal belongings without any reported injuries.
Notably, a devastating flood situation has emerged in the Dasarathpur block of Odisha’s Jajpur district following a rise in the water level of the Baitarani River. Swirling floodwaters have submerged several areas, completely disrupting normal life and severing road communication across multiple villages. At least six panchayats, including Kasapa, Mallikapur, Samang, Kasal, and Sushua, are currently under heavy floodwaters. In many impacted neighbourhoods, knee-deep water has entered homes, forcing displaced residents to seek temporary shelter along river embankments and raised grounds.
Rescuers have ben deployed to evacuate an ailing individual from Mallikapur panchayat to a local medical facility.
Locals expressed profound distress over the recurring crisis, noting that this marks the fourth flood spell to hit the region within just fifteen days. Over the past twelve years, the area has suffered repeatedly from riverbank breaches, impacting dozens of villages and tens of thousands of residents across 19 panchayats.