Odisha CM takes stock of preparations amid heavy rain forecast

Bhubaneswar: With the IMD forecasting heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in Odisha in the next two days, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today directed district collectors to remain “fully prepared to tackle emergencies”, an official statement said. The CM also asked the district authorities to ensure that the students participating in the Independence Day celebrations tomorrow do not face any difficulty, it said.

Heavy showers lashed parts of the state today, bringing down temperatures by a few notches and slowing traffic on the thoroughfares, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said. The two districts of Ganjam and Kalahandi received maximum average rainfall at 71.4 mm and 64.7 mm, he said. “The chief minister took stock of the rain preparedness in the districts in view of the IMD forecast.

Around nine districts, including Kandhamal (49.8 mm), Sambalpur (45.3 mm), Boudh (44.0 mm) and Koraput (34.9 mm)m received rainfall in the past 24 hours,” he said. Sethi, however, stressed that all major rivers were flowing below the danger level and there was no threat of flood situation in the state for now.

“Besides Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force, we have units of National Disaster Response Force prepared for handling eventualities. The collectors have been told to make decisions in view of the local situation,” the SRC asserted. In its latest bulletin, the IMD said 13 districts, including Ganjam, Puri and Cuttack, are likely to experience heavy to very heavy rainfall today.

The meteorological department, in its forecast for tomorrow, also said that the northern part of the state may get affected by the showers, especially Nuapada, Balangir, Sonepur and Nayagarh districts. The weather condition, under the influence of a low pressure, is likely to persist in the state till August 16, the IMD report added.

A source in the SRC office said Odisha experienced an average rainfall of 23.2 mm in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative average rainfall of the state from June 1 till August 14 comes to a surplus of 6.5 per cent over the long-term average rainfall, he said.

“While six districts have received a surplus rainfall of more than 19 per cent, 21 districts have received normal rainfall during the period. The remaining three districts – Sundargarh, Balangir and Deogarh – registered deficit ranfall by -20.6 per cent, -23.5 per cent and -23.6 per cent respectively,” he added.