Flood damage report by Sept 25

The flood situation in the state seems to be deteriorating with the death toll rising to 26 even as the state government gears up to prepare a detailed report by September 25 on the extent of damage wreaked by the calamity.

"We will make a detailed assessment of the damage caused by the flood by September 25. Photographs will be taken of the damaged houses and a joint secretary will review the state of every block affected by floods. By October 5, we expect to disburse cheques to the flood affected people whose houses have been damaged,” minister for revenue and disaster management S N Patro briefed reporters after a high-level review meeting on flood situation by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Major rivers in the state were below the danger level with inflow to the Hirakud reservoir reducing to 0.12 million cusec and discharge standing at only 0.14 million cusec with dam authorities keeping seven gates open at 3 pm on Thursday. Flood discharge at Mundali was 0.34 million tonne cusec.

The flood has inflicted damage on 31,000 houses in 13 districts. As many as 2.15 million people in 4,096 villages of 95 blocks and 16 urban local bodies have been affected by the current flood.

As per reports received from 15 districts, about 192,000 people have been evacuated from low lying areas to safer places and provided with emergency food assistance. The districts include Angul, Balasore, Bargarh,Boudh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Puri, Sambalpur and Sonepur.

The state government has opened 368 relief camps in the inundated areas, covering 170,252 persons. As many as 960 boats have been deployed for rescue and relief operations.

Four helicopters of Indian Navy and Indian Air Force have been pressed into service for airdropping of food packets in most affected areas of Kendrapara, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Boudh and Nayagarh districts.