(From top) The Sarpeswara Mahadev temple in Jhinkiria in Bayalish Mouza, 10km from Cuttack, submerged in floodwater. While a youth in Govindpur in Orissa’s Puri district moves out from his house with a cycle on a makeshift boat on Sunday, an old man tries to reach to a rescue vessel in the flood-affected Pratapganj area in Bihar’s Supaul district. In Bihar, with all the major rivers maintaining a receding trend, the situation improved further even as the death toll in the current spell of floods rose to 216 in 18 affected districts. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das, Sanjib Mukherjee and PTI

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 21: After north Bihar, it’s the turn of coastal Orissa.

Millions of people were marooned just in a few hours with the Mahanadi and Kathajodi triggering 61 breaches in the embankments bringing the worst flood memory of 1982.

Till late this evening, the official death toll stood at 17 while at least 30 lakh people were rendered homeless in 3,683 villages in 17 districts. According to government officials, 1,849 villages are still inundated damaging about 1.55 lakh hectares area.

“More than 2.2 lakh people have been evacuated by government rescue teams, while IAF helicopters have air-dropped 4,650 food packets in the submerged and cut-off areas,” chief secretary Ajit Tripathy said.

For villagers taking shelter on embankments, rooftops, roads, in highrises and schools, efforts are on to rescue them on time. As of now, relief material are being supplied through boats and dropped from two IAF choppers.

Marooned villagers have been spending sleepless nights on the embankments with eyes on the water level. The government would provide relief for 15 days in the Mahanadi delta region while other areas would be provided relief for three to seven days, said revenue and disaster management minister Manmohan Samal, adding more than 30 lakh people had been affected.

Four more helicopters had been sought from the Centre for food air-dropping. Around 2,000 boats including 200 power boats, were also pressed into service for relief and rescue operations, said the minister. Besides, the army had been alerted and asked to stand by for undertaking relief and rescue operations.

The coastal districts of Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada are worst hit. According to preliminary reports, more than 11,000 houses had been damaged and 1,552 roads had been cut off.

The flood waters have reached the outskirts of Bhubaneswar with about 10,000 people taking refuge along the embankments in Balianta. On road, Puri remained cut off from both Bhubaneswar and Konark with a huge breach of 400ft on the embankment of Bhargavi river near Pipili town.

Institutions and low-lying areas adjacent to the state capital have also been hit by the swelling water. Nikhil Nayak, a 21-year-old college student, died in the GGP Colony in Bhubaneswar.

Seven persons were killed in Cuttack district in the past couple of days as major rivers, including the Mahanadi and Kathajodi, caused 12 breaches and affected an estimated 6.64 lakh people spread over 170 gram panchayats across all the 14 blocks. Sources said six persons were swept away while another was killed due to snakebite. Cattle casualty was reported to be 10.

The Cuttack district administration deployed one team of Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force for rescue and relief operations at Banki as road communication remained cut off with the entire sub-division and nearly 2 lakh people remained marooned.

The district authorities claimed 75,441 people had been rescued so far and provided temporary shelters at 68 places.

“While 850 quintals of rice, 593.5 quintals of chuda, 66.34 quintals of molasses and 70,000 drinking water pouches have already been air-dropped. Relief operations are underway to reach people in distress,” said Saroj Mohanty, the district emergency officer.

NCP state president and former irrigation minister Bijoy Mohapatra alleged that relief had not reached 81 gram panchayats in Kendrapada and Cuttack districts. Relief and rescue operations could not be undertaken properly due to lack of powerboats and manpower, said Mohapatra, who visited flood-hit areas for the last couple of days.