Heavy Rainfall Warning In Odisha: SRC Asks Collectors To Stay Alert

Bhubaneswar: Taking note of the extremely heavy rainfall warning by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in four districts and heavy to very heavy rainfall in eight districts in the next 12 hours, the Odisha government on Saturday asked the collectors of these districts to stay on high alert.

In a letter, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) has asked collectors of the districts under the red and orange warning, to keep the administrative machinery fully prepared to meet any possible flood/water logging/landslide that may arise in the event of intense rainfall and take pre-emptive arrangements to evacuate people from the vulnerable locations to safe shelters and provide adequate food, safe drinking water, lighting, health and sanitation facilities at the shelters/relief camps. Besides, they have been asked to make early arrangements to clear the road communication in the event of a landslide in the hilly areas.

The SRC has also directed the district emergency operations Centre (EOC) in all the districts to operate round-the-clock and give an update of the situation to the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) from time to time.

This apart, the District Collectors have been asked to warn the fishermen not to venture into the deep sea during the period.

The IMD in a mid-day bulletin said that a low-pressure area over north Odisha and the neighbourhood and an associated cyclonic circulation tilting towards the southwest direction will trigger heavy rainfall in the state.

In view of the heavy rainfall, IMD has issued, red, orange and yellow warning for the following districts.

September 7
(Red warning)
Extremely heavy rainfall at one or two places over the districts of Sonepur, Bargarh, Sambalpur and Jharsuguda.

(Orange warning)
Heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places over the districts of Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Deogarh, Boudh, Angul, Balangir, Nuapada and Nabarangpur.

(Yellow warning)
Heavy rainfall at one or two places over the districts of  Koraput, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Mayurbhanj.

September 8
(Yellow warning)
Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada and Bargarh.

September 10
(Yellow warning)
Sundargarh, Deogarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Khurda, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Ganjam.

September 11
(Yellow warning)
Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Bhadrak.

Besides, IMD has also predicted light to moderate rain or thundershower at many places over north Odisha and at a few places over South Odisha districts on September 9 and thunderstorm with lightning at one or two places over the districts of Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal, Balasore, Kendrapada, Kandhamal, Ganjam and Khurdha on September 11.

Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea along and off the Odisha coast, West-Central Bay of Bengal and the adjoining north-west Bay of Bengal during the next 24 hours as squally weather with gusty surface wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph will make the sea condition rough to very rough.