The water level of the Mahanadi and its major tributary ‘Kathjodi’ is continuously rising. The flood water at Mundali and Naraj is likely to cross the danger level soon. The water discharge at Mundali was 8.80 lakh cusecs and the water level was only 1.5 feet below the danger level. The water level at Naraj was recorded at 25.85 metres and the discharge was 4.34 lakh cusecs. Till evening, 3.97 lakh cusecs of water was being released from Jobra Anicut and the water level there had reached 21.20 metres.
Many villages lost contact with the outside world.
Floodwaters have also spread to low-lying areas in Banki-Damapada block. Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land in many panchayats have been submerged. Five feet deep water is flowing over the Huluhula bridge at Ratagad on the Banki-Tigiriya road.
Water in the sanctum sanctorum of Bhattarika temple
Due to the rising water level in the Mahanadi, floodwater entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Bhattarika temple late on Wednesday night, after which the idol of Goddess Bhattarika was shifted to a temporary temple. Meanwhile, agricultural land has been submerged due to erosion of the Mahanadi bank in Jodam area of Barwa. As the water level is rising, Section 163 of the BNSS has been imposed in the area of the pilgrimage sites of Dhableshwar, Bhattarika and Sindhnath from Thursday.
Large-scale destruction in 20 districts
- According to the SRC office, floods and heavy rains have affected 1,458 villages under 539 gram panchayats in 100 blocks in the districts of Angul, Balangir, Balasore, Bargad, Bhadrak, Chaudh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Kendujar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nuwapada, Rayagada, Sonepur and Sundargarh and 176 wards in 14 urban areas.
- A total of 1,310 animals have died due to the floods. So far, 1,89,597 people have been shifted to safer places. Twenty-one villages have been completely submerged and 24,896 hectares of agricultural land has been submerged. In addition, 1,353 houses have been damaged due to rain and floods,
- 520 relief centres have been set up for the affected people, through which cooked and dry food is being provided to 1,82,252 people. 427 metric tonnes of fodder has been distributed through 19 fodder centres for animals.
The process of safely evacuating flood victims has begun.
As a precautionary measure, the administration has initiated the process of shifting around 1,500 people from Athagarh subdivision, 600 from Banki, 800 from Cuttack Sadar and 1,000 from Cuttack Municipal Corporation area to flood relief centres. One ODRF team has been deployed in each of the three subdivisions, while one NDRF team has been deployed in Cuttack city.