Paradip, Oct. 25: Torrential rain, coupled with tidal ingress has wreaked havoc in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts with four human casualties reported during the day.
With weak coastal embankments falling to tidal waves, more seaside villages have been flooded in the past 24 hours.
House collapse killed four persons of a family today at Jagatsinghpur town. Non-stop downpour has led to the collapse of hundreds of mud-walled houses.
In the house collapse incident at Chatara locality in Jagatsinghpur town. Litu Das, 35, was buried alive along with his spouse Sujata, 30, and two tiny , an official said
Compounding the woes further for rain-hit people, villages such as Noliashai, Polang, Bayanalakanda and Bhuiyanpal have come under the impact to tidal surge.
Large areas have turned into a sea of water posing threat to the human settlements, said Basudev Behera, a local of Noliasahi.
With the tree cover gone, the areas now lie exposed to steady advancement of water from the sea, said Nirvaya Samantaray.
Tidal ingress has cut-off an estimated 15,000 residents in vulnerable pockets of Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara from the mainland. It has inundated places of habitations and crop fields as well.
While Batighar gram panchayat is totally cut off, Satabhaya, Ramnagar, Baulakani and Kharinasi gram panchayat are partially affected following the advancing tidal waves.
“Block officials and personnel of saline engineering wing have rushed to the affected areas. The extent of damage is being assessed,” said Kendrapara collector Niranjan Nayak.
However, local panchayati raj representatives differed from the official’s version.
“The seaside embankments are ill-maintained. Funds sanctioned for the purpose are grossly misused. As a result, people are exposed to the vagaries of tidal ingress”, charged Balram Parida, former chairman of Mahakalpada panchayat samity.
Almost all the 20 urban wards of Kendrapara district headquarter town are lying waterlogged. The downpour has thoroughly exposed the town’s gross absence of sewerage The cargo handling port operation has also been affected, said Paradip Port Trust’s traffic manager Kishore Kumar Sahu.
