Bhubaneswar, Sep 13: The Odisha government on Monday stepped up air-dropping of food packets as flood situation continued to be grim with Mahanadi river flowing above the danger mark in delta region, affecting 22 lakh people and snapping road links with about 1,000 villages.
Flood in Mahanadi, Subarnarekha, Budhabalanga and Baitarani rivers affected 22 lakh people in 19 of the 30 districts of the state where 17 people were killed and 11 others washed away in swollen flood water, officials said.
Of the 17 people killed, maximum five deaths were reported from Jajpur district followed by four in Kendrapada district, three in Mayurbhanj, two each in Dhenkanal and Sambalpur districts and one in Bhadrak district, the Special Relief commissioner (SRC) P K Mohapatra told reporters.
With number of marooned villages gone up to 1109 from 877 yesterday, the government stepped up relief operation by deploying four helicopters in completely cut off areas of Kendrapara, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts.
911 boats have been pressed into service, while 270 emergency relief camps have been opened where food is being provided to 1,33,806 people, the state government claimed.
Reports said, homeless people were sleeping under open air on embankments or on the roof of their houses in flood-hit areas.
23,816 houses have been damaged in floods, says a government report with 1109 villages inundated.
A severe depression meanwhile has originated from western Bay of Bengal and is approaching India's eastern coast, the met department said. The overall picture will be clear by Wednesday, the official said.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik made an aerial survey over the flood-hit areas in western districts like Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Bolangir and announced seven days relief for the affected people.
Meanwhile, damage of 23,816 dwelling houses were reported from 11 districts while 148,011 persons had been evacuated from low laying areas to safe places and 270 relief camps, free kitchens were opened for affected people.
Besides four choppers to drop relief materials, 911 boats were engaged in rescue and relief operation.
Following halt in rains in upper catchment area and reduced inflow, water level in Hirakud reservoir dropped marginally to 628.43, officials said.
As a result only 16 sluice gates of the Hirakud Dam were kept open to maintain balance. Both the inflow and outflow of water in the reservoir was maintained within 3.5 lakh cusec, they said.
Though water started receding in submerged areas of Sambalpur, Sonepur, Boudh and Bargarh districts, floods in the entire Mahanadi River system in the delta region continued to play havoc.
Water level at many places including Naraj, Jobra, Alipingala and Daleighai remained above the danger mark.
However, they hope that the situation would improve by tomorrow in badly affected areas of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jajpur, Puri and Nayagarh districts with discharge of water into the sea, Mohapatra said.
About 48 breaches in the Mahanadi river system have inundated a large number of villages, sources in water resources department said adding several areas on the outskirts of the state capital of Bhubaneswar were inundated by flood waters of Kuakhai and Daya rivers.
Several roads including Cuttack-Banki, Choudwar-Athgarh, Sathipur-Jajpur, Badachana-Balichandrapur, Tirtol-Hansua, Rahama-Khosalpur, Tirtol-Kolar and Tirtol-Posal roads were cut off due to breaches and submergence, they said.
The water level in other major rivers like Subarnarekha, Budhabalanga, Baitarani, Brahmani, Bansadhara and Rushikulya was falling.
