Rain and flood continue to disturb normal life in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: 27/10/13: Rain and flood continue to disturb normal life in Odisha. It has lashed about 10 districts of the state, thrown the lives of people of over four thousand six hundred villages out of gear. There is no respite from incessant rain lashing several parts of the state for the past five days under the influence of low pressure and the north east Monsoon.

The low pressure induced rain caused fresh flood in Budhabalanga river in Mayubhanj district and Rusukulia river of Ganjam district yesterday as it received over 30 centimeters rainfall during the past 24 hours.

The government has been able to evacuate about 2 lakh 30 thousand people marooned in flood waters in different areas of the state like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri and Khordha. The post-phailin second spell of flood has not only literally played spoilsport with the people of Odisha when the 5th ODI between India and Australia in Cuttack was called off  yesterday, but metaphorically as well it has caused heavy casualties in the shape of loss of human and cattle lives, extensive damage of standing crops and collapse of thousands of huts, homes and houses across the state. 

Crops over 564,000 hectares destroyed – the floods in the state are getting worse by the hour. And the deluge can only get worse, with more rains expected in the next 48 hours.

The death toll went up to 19 due to rain related incidents in the state. Rivers and rivulets are flowing to their brim due to heavy inflows due to which several more villages are facing a threat of flood. The authorities are evacuating people from low lying areas especially those who are closer to the river banks government official said today.

And in neighboring West Bengal, torrential rains flooded streets, uprooted trees and sent houses crashing that took two lives.

Road and rail routes have been badly hit huge stretches of train tracks are under water, so are parts of the NH-5 and SHs. Overall, 1533 km of roads have been damaged.