Floodwater in the Mahanadi river has hit the coastal region of Odisha inundating a large number of villages in 10 different districts while more than two lakh people are estimated to be affected, said State government on Wednesday.
As swirling floodwater made its way to coastal region, several river and canal embankments got breached and hundreds of people suddenly found themselves marooned by floodwater.
“About 2 lakh people in 1366 villages in 369 gram panchayats in 50 blocks and nine urban local bodies in 10 districts have also been affected. Similarly, 1.2 lakh people in 237 villages have been marooned by floodwaters,” said P. K. Jena, Special Relief Commissioner.
Hundreds of houses have been damaged while kharif crop in thousands of acres of land have gone under sea of water. There has been no report of any casualty in the ongoing flood in the State.
Districts those have come under flood impact include Cuttack, Khordha, Puri, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Boudh, Sambalpur and Angul. Many low lying areas of capital city of Bhubaneswar were submerged by floodwater. Roads were cutoff in Puri, Cuttack and Khordha district.
The present reservoir level at Hirakud was measured at 626.56 feet as against the full reservoir level of 630 ft. About 5.97 lakh cusecs of water was entering the reservoir while 6.79 cusecs water was being released through 40 gates.
The peak floodwater at Mundali, which is said to be last major river gauging station, has already crossed and the water level was gradually coming down. The State government is providing cooked food at more than 100 different places.
Odisha is expecting heavy rain in all parts of the State especially the north Odisha region under influence of a low-pressure area which is likely to form by August 19. The SRC, however, said they were not expecting a major flood in Baitarani and Brahmani river systems during that time.
