Bhubaneswar: Anticipating a medium flood in the Mahanadi river system in the wake of incessant rains following a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal, the Odisha government has deployed NDRF, ODRAF, and fire services teams in 15 districts likely to be affected by the flood.
Official sources said around 8 lakh cusecs of flood water are likely to pass in the Mahanadi at Mundali by 12 pm on Thursday.
The Collectors of Angul, Cuttack, Nayagarh, Khordha, Puri, Jagatsinghopur, and Kendtrapata have been asked to take all measures and guard the weak embankments.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) office sources said 8 NDRF teams, 13 ODRAF teams, and 23 Additional fire teams were deployed for search and rescue operations in 15 districts in the state.
At least 62 Fire and Emergency services teams with boats are deployed to assist the district administrations of Kendrapara, Cuttack Sadar Athgarh, Jagatsinghpur Khordha, Nayagarh and Puri.
The SRC has directed 24×7 patrolling of vulnerable river embankments with the support of local police and the department of water resources engineers.
The district administration has been instructed to evacuate the people from the low-lying areas as may be required and shift them to safe shelter buildings with light, toilets, water and food arrangements.
Meanwhile, IMD sources said the depression over Jharkhand and adjoining north Chhattisgarh moved west with a speed of 12 kmph during the past 6 hours and lay centred over north Chhattisgarh and 190 km east of Sidhi (East Madhya Pradesh).
It is likely to move west-northwestward towards northeast Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southeast Uttar Pradesh and weaken into a well-marked low pressure area during the next 12 hours.
Under its impact, Light to moderate rain or thundershowers are very likely to occur in Odisha and at a few places over the districts of Coastal Odisha in the next few days. The Met sources, however,ruled out heavy rainfall for Odisha.
IMD sources said that during the past 24 hours, Odisha had recorded 38 mm of rainfall. The average rainfall recorded from August 1 to August 3 was 147.5 mm, against the August monthly average rainfall of 356 mm.
It said the highest rainfall of 195.4 mm was recorded in the last 24 hours in the Kutra block of Sundargarh district. Over 100 mm of rainfall was recorded in eleven blocks in the state.
