At 12.38pm on Tuesday, residents in several parts of the state, including the twin cities, were once again left shaken and stirred as a tremor with its epicentre in earthquake-devastated Nepal struck Odisha. Though no casualties have been reported from the state, a few buildings bore the brunt of the quake and people, who are yet to overcome the shock of the April 25 tremor, pressed the panic button.

Close shave
A family staying in a 32-year-old building near the office of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority in Kharavela Nagar had a narrow escape when a portion of the concrete roof caved in under the impact of the tremor.

“I was sleeping and my granddaughter was performing puja when the furniture started shaking and moments later a portion of the roof caved in with a huge thud. Luckily, no was hurt when the portion of the roof fell,” said Banshidhar Das, 85, a tenant of the building.    

If the Das family had a close shave, employees at the heads of the departments building — popularly known as Natala — were seen surveying cracks that the quake has caused to the structure.

Deputy relief commissioner Prabhat Mohapatra said that no loss of life or property had been reported from any part of the state so far.

Rush hour 
Tremors were felt in most parts of the state leaving the people in a state of panic, even if for a brief while. Hundreds of people rushed out of high-rises to safety. 

Hundreds of people living or working in various high-rise buildings, including Idco Tower, Fortune Tower and Odisha State Housing Board, rushed out of their offices following the tremor.

“I was working when I suddenly felt that the floor was trembling. A few moments later the ceiling fans started shaking and I could realise that it was a tremor. I ran out of my house,” said Nibedita Rana, a government employee of Odisha State Housing Board.

In Cuttack, relatives of patients admitted at SCB Medical College and Hospital started running to save their lives. “There was chaos and everybody ran to save their lives. Even parents of children admitted in the ICU ran frantically, but the doctors did not leave the patients,” said Vikram Samal, senior resident of SCB Medical College and Hospital, with a sense of pride.

Quake spread
A met department official said that the epicentre of the earthquake was about 815 km north of Bhubaneswar.

“Mild tremors were felt at various places in the state, three minutes after the earthquake hit its epicentre in Nepal. People residing on upper floors could have felt the tremor more,” said director of regional meteorological centre Sarat Chandra Sahu. Apart from the state capital, the tremor was also felt in Cuttack, Sambalpur, Baripada, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Rourkela, Berhampur and Balasore.

Structure poser
Structural stability of old and dilapidated buildings has now emerged as a major concern for scores of residents in Cuttack after the moderate earthquake. Though 233 buildings were earlier found to be in dilapidated conditions, nothing much has been done as little over 30 per cent of the structures have been repaired so far, an official source said.

In July last year, the roads and buildings division of public works department (PWD) had conducted assessment of the structures following a moderate quake. Out of all the old buildings in the city, 196 were residential and quarters of various government departments, while 37 non-residential structures were identified to be unsafe. 

Eight buildings had been marked for demolition. 

Besides, Cuttack Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Development Authority had also carried out a joint survey to assess the condition of old and unsafe private buildings in the city.

“We will soon convene an emergency meeting with officials of the development authority, municipal corporation and the PWD. 

We will speed up the process of demolition of unsafe government buildings at the earliest,” said district collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra.

Text by Lelin Kumar Mallick and Vikash Sharma, 
Pictures by Ashwinee Pati and Telegraph pictures