Ganjam, Odisha:
After five days of incessant rains, Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar finally saw a few patches of blue sky and witnessed a break from the downpour as the depression over the Bay of Bengal seemed to weaken today.
Though water level has started receding, rivers in the Ganjam district in the southern part of the state were still overflowing, Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra told NDTV.
"It is a double blow for Ganjam. It was the worst hit by cyclone Phailin and now it is being pounded by flash floods. It has rained nearly three times more compared to the rains during the cyclone. I have never seen so much rain in my life during this time of the year," Mr Mohapatra said.
Heavy downpour since five days has left lakhs of people marooned and 10 dead in the state so far.
Rescue and evacuation operations by the Indian Air Force and the National Disaster Response Force are on in full swing, but 50,000 people are still cut off in areas inundated with water. "It's a grim situation. We evacuated 85,000 people yesterday and 15,000 are now in relief camps," Mr Mohapatra explained.
The floods are suspected to have caused large scale damage to roads, bridges and communication and electricity infrastructure. Another big worry is decontaminating water sources as threat of an outbreak of disease is possible. Mr Mohapatra said teams have been sent to deal with the situation.
The government, he said, has also assured that those who have lost the ration given after the cyclone will once again be supplied the relief material.