After some days of an unbearable and unusual blazing Shravan, heavy rainfall has brought relief from hot and humid weather but also opened floodgates of misery for people.
Residents in the Twin Cities, Puri and several other urban centres woke up to intense spells of rain from the morning hours of Saturday.
In state capital Bhubaneswar, incessant downpours caused waterlogging in several low-lying and poor drainage areas such as ISKCON, Nayapalli, Acharya Vihar, Bomikhal thereby causing traffic snarls.
Heavy rainfall also caused inundation in several parts of Cuttack while flood-like situation also developed in the pilgrim city Puri bringing troubles for residents.
According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Regional Centre, Puri has recieved 87 mm of rain between 8.30 amd and 11.30 am today, the highest in the state. Bhubaneswar recorded more than 24 mm of rain followed by 15 mm rain in Paradip and Chandbali.
The Met department on Saturday issued an advisory for intense spell of rainfall in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
As per the IMD advisory, “Generally cloudy sky with a few spells of rain/thunderstorm with one or two intense spell (2-3 cm/hr) very likely to occur over Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
The intense spell of heavy rainfall is likely to cause waterlogging in low-lying areas, under pass roads and might also create problems in the movement of vehicular traffic due to poor visibility.
Apart from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, alert for thunderstorm was also issued for the districts of Puri, Nayagarh, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Jajpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Boudh and Angul in the next three hours.
The IMD has also predicted increase in rainfall activities in different parts of the state. Moreover, a low pressure is also likely to form over over Northwest & adjoining Westcentral Bay of Bengal around August 7.
“Rainfall activity is likely to increase gradually from today, and widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls at one or two places likely to occur during 6th to 10th August, 2022 over the districts of Odisha,” said IMD.