An elderly woman in her damaged thatched house after Phailin hit Sukunda village in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 17: The flood situation continued to be grim in north Odisha though major rivers have started receding. The death toll due to the floods has gone up from 15 to 22.

Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts have reported five deaths each due to the floods, while three casualties have taken place in Ganjam, two in Nayagarh and one each in Angul, Bhadrak, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khurda and Puri.

The floods induced by Phailin has affected 12.19 lakh people at 4,010 villages in 38 blocks of four north Odisha districts of Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak and Jajpur. Several villages in the region remain marooned. Relief materials are yet to reach many of the villages due to lack of communication.

“Nearly 50 villages are still marooned. Neither relief nor any kind of help has yet been received from the administration,” said Ramakanta Panda, a flood victim of Pratappur village in Balasore.

About one lakh people in the districts remain either at the relief camps or at higher places. According to the emergency office sources, about 90,000 people are marooned and 22,000 people at the relief centres in various locations in Balasore.

In Bhadrak, though water level of the Baitarani river has receded, yet Chandbali and Tahidi are under the floods’ grip. “About 50 villages are still encountering worst situation,” said Bhadrak collector L.N. Mishra.

In Mayurbhanj, as the Budhabalanga and Gangahar rivers are receding, the situation is improving. The Baripada district headquarters hospital, which was completely deluged, is returning to normality.

Mayurbhanj district emergency officer Pallavi Nayak said: “Mayurbhanj is limping back to normality. We are serving cooked foods from six kitchens.”

Five days after Phailin hit the region, power and drinking water supply are yet to be restored in many affected areas. “We have been without electricity for the past five days. It has also affected water supply,” said Narendra Charan Behera, a resident of Mahisara village in Jajpur.

“We are not getting drinking water since Friday,” said Kabita Das, a resident of Arangabad at Bari block in Jajpur.