A low to medium flood may hit several coastal districts of Odisha on Saturday night, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena informed on Thursday.
“The water level in Hirakud reservoir is increasing due to heavy rainfall in Chhattisgarh. At present, 5.20 lakh cusec of water is entering the reservoir while the outflow is 4.80 lakh cusec. The water discharged from the dam will reach Mundali by Saturday morning,” Jena said during a briefing.
“As per the information of the water resources department, 8 lakh cusec of water is expected to flow through Mundali barrage of Mahanadi between Saturday morning and noon. The peak flood will pass through Kendrapara and Puri on Saturday evening and night. We have alerted the district administrations of the concerned districts,” he added.
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The SRC said a low to medium flood is likely to pass. “It will not have any major impact if embankments are strong enough. Officials have been asked to keep close vigil and patrolling has already started. We are hopeful it will not have any major impact,” Jena said.
He further informed that as precautionary measures, 30 ODRAF teams, 12 NDRF teams and 10 fire services teams have been mobilised to six districts- Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Cuttack and Puri.
“The administration will remain alert. We also appeal to people living in riverside villages and near embankments to help the administration. We hope no such adverse situation will arise,” Jena said.
Sharing the latest data regarding human casualties during the rain in the State, he said nine persons had died during the rain -three in Kendrapara, two in Jajpur, one each in Khordha, Ganjam, Keonjhar and Subarnapur.