Incessant downpour wreaks havoc in Southern Odisha

Heavy rains induced by a system over the Bay of Bengal hit normal life across Southern Odisha over last three days. 

Sources said water level in different rivers of Malkangiri district rose sharply due to incessant rain for last three days. Communication between Motu and Malkangiri got disrupted due to a rise in water level in Sileru and Saberi rivers. As both Sabari and Sileru rivers are now in spate Motu tehsil has got disconnected from the outer world.

Also, incessant downpour wreaked havoc as National Highway 326 was submerged affecting the vehicular traffic from both sides on Tuesday. The NH on Kankarugunda bridge gave a look of a lake with several vehicles, including buses and trucks, stranded on both sides.

The rainwater was flowing 10 feet above Jhapra Bridge connecting Malkangiri and Chhattisgarh, Malkangiri and Telengana.  

Meanwhile, the district administration failed to discharge rainwater due to rising water level of Godavari. Normal life has severely been affected due to flood-like situation in Malkangiri.

On the other hand, a bridge at Nuapada Sinapali was washed away due to constant downpour affecting communication between Sinapali, Ghatamal and Bode. 

In Gajapati district, four villages got inundated and disrupted from neighbouring villages due to the nonstop rain. Due to the rise of water level in Harabhangi river near Mohana, Baipur, Gunduriguda, Dhanupanka and Nuasahi have disconnected from outer world.  Due to disruption of communication, villagers failed to take a patient to hospital and the latter had to succumb. 

Sources said after Harabhangi river was swollen communication of four villages got disrupted. Residents of four villages got stranded on both sides. 

A local said, “We are not able to take pregnant women to hospital. Yesterday we could not able to take a serious patient to Mohana hospital and in the process the patient died.