The brollies and raincoats were out in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 6: The incessant rainfall triggered by a low pressure in the Bay of Bengal has thrown life out of gear in many pockets of the state, including Bhubaneswar.

The water level in the Mahanadi river is gradually rising, threatening another spell of floods in the river system.

Nearly 32 villages under Gania block in Nayagarh district have been cut off from the district headquarters.

“In August, the first phase of floods in the Mahanadi river system destroyed the economy of our localities. Now, if the second phase of floods take a severe turn, we will be ruined,” said Loknath Das, 43, a farmer of Gania block. There was massive disruption of traffic in Sonepir district.

In another development, the Hirakud dam authority has opened up 15 gates, and nearly 8 lakh cusecs of water passed through the Mundali barrage near Cuttack in the evening. It is likely to be reduced at night.

However, special relief commissioner said there was no immediate flood.

Besides, the local meteorological office has predicted more rainfall in the next 24 hours. Director of the local Met office Sarat Chandra Sahu said: “There will be heavy rainfall in many pockets of south Odisha and one or two places in north Odisha.”

The lower pressure area, formed over north Bay of Bengal off the Bengal-Bangladesh coasts, has been converted to a well-marked low pressure area. Because of the low pressure, the state has been witnessing heavy rainfall for the past two days. While Daringbadi town in Kandhamal district has recorded the state’s highest rainfall of 83mm since Friday, Phulbani town in the same district recorded 65mm of rain during the same period. Similarly, Balangir town recorded 59.6mm rain followed by Gopalpur with 58mm of rainfall. The Met department has issued warning to the fishermen not to venture to the sea, as there will be high tide because of the low pressure. The wind speed continues to remain 45 to 55km per hour. Under its impact, a major part of the coastal belt witnessed a power cut because of electrical snag.