Six districts put on flood alert in Odisha; many rivers in spate due to heavy rainfall across state

The Odisha government has put six districts on alert, apprehending a low to medium flood in the Mahanadi river system. Many of the rivers including the Mahanadi are in spate due to the recent depression induced heavy rainfall across the state.

AIR correspondent reports that the state government has made elaborate arrangements to tackle any flood situation should that arise in districts like Cuttack, Puri, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Kendrapara. As many as 30 NDRF and 12 ODRAF teams have been stationed at vulnerable points across these districts for rescue and relief operations. Meanwhile, Hirakud dam, the largest one on river Mahanadi has swollen to about 628 feet against its full storage capacity of 630 ft. As much as 4.8 lakh cusec of water is released through 28 gates of the dam to balance out the heavy water inflow into the reservoir. On the other hand, death toll due to rain in the state has risen to seven- the causes being wall collapse and drowning.