Met dept predicts more rain for flood-affected Orissa
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted: Sep 23, 2008 at 0043 hrs IST
Updated: Sep 23, 2008 at 0043 hrs IST

After Bihar, it is now the turn of Orissa to face nature’s wrath. Incessant rains have swamped the Mahanadi and its tributaries, causing devastation in 17 districts of the state including Angul, Bhadrak, Bolangir, Cuttack, Gajapati, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Keonjhar, Kalahandi, Khorda, Puri, Nayagarh, Raygada, Subarnpur and Sambalpur.

According to the reports available with the National Disaster Management Division, about 3.04 million people in 2,962 villages were severely affected, 45,190 houses were damaged and a crop area of 119.4 million hectare has been inundated. Road traffic to urban townships like Puri, Konark, Banki, Athgarh and Athmallik remains disrupted.

The Orissa government, on September 21, reported to the Centre about 13 cases of loss of human life and 53 cases of livestock death. Floodwaters even entered Bhubaneswar on Sunday killing one person.

With the river Mahanadi flowing near the danger-mark at certain places, the official weather forecasting agency, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), has predicted no hope of the rains receding. The IMD has said that fairly widespread rainfall would continue over Orissa in the next two to three days, while rainfall would decrease over northwest India and west central and peninsular India.