A villager carries an old man through floodwaters in Marshaghai block of Kendrapada district on Tuesday. (PTI)

Kendrapara, Sept. 13: Chitrotpala-Paika-Luna rivulets of Mahanadi have triggered the worst deluge in recent memory.

So far the flood has inundated 204 villages here in the district. To make matter worse, the rain shows no signs of slowing down.

“It has been raining intermittently since this morning. As a result, dispatch of relief to flood-hit areas has been affected. The rising water level is impeding relief operations further.

“High-speed motorised boats have been rendered useless. Now, we are engaging country-boats for the relief operation,” said Kendrapara sub-collector Pratap Keshari Mishra.

“Air-dropping of relief materials began yesterday afternoon. We hope that all the people in marooned areas get relief materials dropped from the air,” said district collector Pradipta Kishore Pattnaik.

Narendra Jena of flood-hit Narasinghapur village said: “We were not prepared for a calamity of this magnitude. Floodwater has totally submerged our village.

“Many people can be seen sitting on their roof-tops waiting for someone to rescue them. Few others like me have taken shelter at various embankments.

“The flood has scripted a horror story. Buildings have caved in and all the thatched houses have been swept away.”

Thousands of people have also taken shelter on the Daiatari-Paradip express highway, other roads and river embankments.

Even 48 hours after embankments caved in at seven strategic spots of the Mahanadi triggering deluge, there has been no signs of the floodwater receding.

“About 2.38 lakh people have been affected by the flood. The failure of boats carrying relief materials to enter most of the submerged villages because of strong water current has made matters worse,” said district emergency officer Rudra Narayan Mohanty.

“Chitrotpala, Luna, Karanadia and Paika of the Mahanadi system are still flowing above the danger level. In some places, the floodwater has even spilled on to National Highway 5(A),” said Garadpur block development officer Bipra Charan Mohanty.

“The situation is expected to improve by tomorrow. However, it will take at least one week for life to get back on track in the marooned villages,” said Pattnaik.

“We have advised the medical teams to station themselves at centrally-located places amid a cluster of four to five hamlets,” he added.