Bhubaneswar, Oct 29: The Odisha government was coordinating with the Union Home Ministry to airlift people from Ganjam district, where heavy rain and flash floods triggered by Cyclone Arnab marooned around 300 villages, a top state official said on Thursday.
With national highway washed away and train services disrupted, the state has deployed 54 teams from different disaster response agencies for rescue operations, Chief Secretary Anu Garg said while pointing out that low cloud level and continued rain could delay air evacuations.
She said three teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 27 of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and 24 of the Fire Service have begun rescue operations in the affected areas.
Officials said Sorada was among the worst-affected areas of Ganjam, with the Rushikulya river overflowing due to extremely heavy rainfall for the past three days and inundating nearby towns and villages. In Aska, the river is flowing close to its danger level.
Digapahandi and Chikiti blocks have also been witnessing incessant rain for the past two days, triggering floods, they said.
Around 300 villages have been marooned due to rains and flash floods, Garg said, adding, “The state government is in contact with the Ministry of Home Affairs, and arrangements are being made to airlift some people from the marooned areas. The Indian Coast Guard will provide a chopper and make required arrangements.”
The state government plans to airlift 120 people in the first phase, but air evacuations may be delayed as cloud level remains low and rain continues, the chief secretary told reporters.
“We are optimistic that rains will ease, allowing our rescue teams to reach the affected people. We have rushed an additional ODRAF team to Ganjam and a senior officer has been monitoring the evacuation activities.”
Garg said the rainfall Ganjam and Gajapati district witnessed in the past few days is what the region sometimes gets in the whole year.
While Patrapur in Ganjam district gauged 546 mm of rain till Thursday morning, the office of the State Relief Commissioner (SRC) said G Udayagiri in Kandhamala recorded 462.4 mm of rainfall, Sanakhemundi 388 mm, Raikia 384.8 mm and Sorada 375 mm.
Chikiti in Ganjam received 309.2 mm of rain, Mohana in Gajapati 307.6 mm, and Daringbadi and Chakapad, both in Kandhamal gauged 273 mm and 249 mm of rain, respectively.
“Rivers are flowing in spate, making it difficult to operate boats there. As many as 42,500 in Ganjam and around 20,000 in Gajapati have been affected,” Garg said.
Odisha Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhushan Jena said most of the marooned people are in villages of Sanakhemundi and Aska blocks.
The state’s Engineer-in-Chief Dilip Kumar Rout said the extremely heavy downpour has led to flood-like situations in Ganjam district. The Rushikulya river was flowing at 19 meters against the danger mark of 16.8 meters in Purosottampur.
“The water level is expected to rise further,” he said.
The downpour also led to landslides in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts.
The chief secretary said that heavy rainfall has disrupted rail services in the Srikakulam district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. “A railway bridge has been submerged in Srikakulam, halting trains on both sides,” Garg said, adding that authorities were planning to rescue stranded passengers by road.
If rescue by road is not possible, the passengers would be accommodated at nearby railway stations, where arrangements are being made to provide them with necessary facilities, the Odisha chief secretary said.
Around 300 metres of National Highway 326 has been washed away in Mohana block of Gajapati district, disrupting connectivity with Ganjam district. An official said the Gajapati district administration has extended the closure of schools to October 31 in view of waterlogging and rains.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured the Odisha government and other states of all possible assistance in dealing with the impact of Cyclone Arnab.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said, “Spoke with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and briefed him on the impact of Cyclone Arnab across Odisha, the prevailing situation in affected districts, and the relief and restoration measures being undertaken by the state government.”
“He assured us of all possible assistance to Odisha in the wake of the cyclone. The support and cooperation of the Government of India will further strengthen our efforts to protect lives, support affected families and expedite relief, rehabilitation and restoration across the state,” he said on X. (PTI)
