Flood victims limp back to normal

Statesman News Service
KENDRAPARA, Oct. 16: People have begun picking up the threads of their life almost a month after flood ripped apart village after village in this coastal district.
The flood affected continue to nurture optimism and hope.
"Assured of help, people have begun their routine struggle for bread and butter," narrated an official in charge of flood-damage restoration measures.
Four-year-old Bhabani cries inconsolably pleading with his septuagenarian grand father for fried ‘vada’ from the village market.
The toddler's shrill cries die down as Rajkishore Sahu distracts his attention to recent fury of flood.
The child knows little about flood and its trails of destruction. But soon he turns silent paying heed to what his grand father narrates on how the swirling waters gushed into the house …and so on.
The agro-based economy in Marsaghai, Kendrapara, Patkura, Mahakalpada and Derabish blocks, that underwent maximMum flood damage, is in doldrums.
With hopes of good kharif yield washed away, it’s a torrid time for the farmers.
The land owners and tenant farmers are gearing up for early rabi crop cultivation. With the damaged irrigation canals yet to be repaired, there is not a drop of water in irrigation channels.