Authorities in Odisha are keeping their fingers crossed with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting heavy rain for four districts of the State that could trigger a fresh round of floods.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik appealed to residents of the four districts - Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak, Balasore and Keonjhar - to stay calm in wake of the IMD prediction of “heavy to very-heavy rain from Friday night”.
He urged people to obey instructions of the administration and keep their respective families safe.
“The Depression over northwest and adjoining northeast Bay of Bengal moved northwestwards with a speed of 20 kmph, intensified into a deep depression and lay centered at over northwest and adjoining northeast Bay of Bengal, about 200 km east-southeast of Balasore. Continuing to move in the same direction, it is very likely to cross West Bengal and Odisha coasts between Balasore and Sagar Islands around evening of August 19. After landfall, it would continue to move west-northwestwards across north Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand towards north Chhattisgarh and weaken gradually,” the IMD said in a bulletin.
Red warning has been issued for the four Odisha districts where rainfall measuring 7-20 cm could occur at a few places. Isolated extremely heavy falls of over 20 cm are also very likely, the IMD added.
While district administrations have ordered closure of schools for two days, the government has pre-positioned relief materials and readied disaster response teams.
All schools have been asked to keep their buildings ready for shelter and relief material distribution and allow usage of food items allocated for mid-day meal scheme for flood-affected people.
Anticipating further inflow of water from Chhattisgarh into the Mahanadi River system, the Hirakud Reservoir administration has brought down the reservoir level to 620 feet against full reservoir level of 630 feet.
The flood situation in the State is grim, with more than 5 lakh people affected by inundation in 12 districts. Over 2.5 lakh people had been marooned and many had to flee to safer places after floodwater entered their villages. Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Khordha districts have been affected the most in the current phase of floods.
