Rains & rivers flood vast areas

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Residents in a flood-hit area near Konark leave their village during the rains. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: Flash flood caused by heavy rain in upper catchment wreaked havoc in several places of southern and western parts of the state, while heavy rains are likely to lash the northern and central Orissa, as a deep depression formed over the Bay of Bengal. The government has alerted all the districts to keep in readiness to face any eventuality and swing into action wherever relief and rescue operations are necessary, disaster management minister Manmohan Samal said this afternoon. S.C. Sahoo, the director of meteorology centre here, said heavy to very heavy rains were likely to occur at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Orissa during the next 48 hours under the influence of the depression. By this evening, the Vanshadhara, Rushikulya and their tributaries were rising and flowing close to danger mark following the rains since past two days. Around 500 residents of Gudari in Rayagada district were evacuated as the town was submerged by the flood water for the second time in a week, Samal said, adding that similar steps were taken in a ward in Bolangir town. Full Story