Bhubaneswar: This Sunday will not be a holiday for government officials in districts with a flood threat looming large over the state.

The decision to keep the state government offices open to ensure round-the-clock monitoring of the crisis triggered by incessant rain was taken here on Saturday following a top-level meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the secretariat.

Emerging from the meeting, special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said the government was fully prepared to deal with the situation with teams of fire personnel and the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (Odraf) having been deployed to carry out rescue operations. Sethi admitted that the water level of rivers such as the Nagavali, Brahmani and the Baitarani was rising following rain but asserted that they were flowing below the danger mark.

However, casualties are already being reported from Malkangiri and Rayagada. While a 50 year-old woman from Majhiguda village under Khairaput block of Malkangiri was washed away in the swirling waters of a nullah on Friday, a couple were killed in Rayagada district after a portion of their house wall collapsed on Saturday.

Sources said rain having washed away local roads at Mudulipada and Andrabahal in Malkangiri the Bonda people inhabiting this region have been cut off from rest of the district. The road link between Kalampur and Junagarh in the tribal-dominated Kalahandi district had been snapped following torrential rain.

The situation was no better in cities such as Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, where 181 pumps had to be deployed to drain out water from flooded roads. Fire personnel and Odraf teams were also helping people marooned by rainwater in the low-lying areas of the cities, where schools remained closed.

While the Sun Temple at Konark was submerged in knee-deep water, Puri was also reeling from waterlogging even as officials struggled to put in place preparations for Sunday's bahuda yatra (return journey) of Lord Jagannath and his siblings from the Gundicha temple, where the deities are on a nine-day sojourn. Puri collector Aravind Agarwal said the administration was doing its best to keep the situation under control.

During the review meeting, Naveen issued instructions to keep district control rooms open round the clock and asked officials to maintain a close watch on the water level of major rivers. This follows the local Met centre's forecast about heavy rainfall at some places, including the districts of Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Bargarh and Nuapada during the next 24 hours.

The state on Saturday received an average rainfall of 58.2mm with six districts - Kalahandi, Puri, Khurda, Koraput, Malkangiri and Gajpati - recording an average of 100mm and above.

With the Hirakud dam authorities likely to release water from the reservoir within a day or two as a precautionary measure, coastal areas in the Mahanadi downstream also face the flood threat.