Around 7,000 people in Odisha have been shifted from low-lying areas due to flood-like situation in state
A pregnant woman was among the three people rescued by a team of the Dhenkanal district administration and the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force as the state's major rivers and their tributaries remained in spate after days of heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
The woman, who was safely admitted to the nearest hospital, was rescued from the flood-affected village of Jayapur, in Dhenkanal - some 70km from state capital Bhubaneswar.
Odisha is expected to get battered by heavy rainfall from September 1, the weather department has forecast.
Heavy rain triggered by a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal has led to flood-like situation in several parts of Odisha where five of the 11 major rivers, including the Mahanadi, are in spate.
Many other rivers are also in spate submerging low-lying areas and snapping road connectivity. While some four lakh people have been affected by the rains, around 7,000 people have been shifted from low-lying areas and 12 people have died in rain-related incident.
On Saturday, as the water level of swollen Mahanadi river rose menacingly, 44 of the 64 sluice gates of the Hirakud Dam were opened, officials said.
"Following discharge of huge volume of water from Hirakud dam, 10 to 10.5 lakh cusec of water is likely to flow through Munduli shortly which may trigger a medium level flood
in the Mahanadi delta region," Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), P K Jena said.
Stating that several houses and standing crops have been damaged due to flood in these rivers, the SRC said the collectors of the affected districts have been asked to assess the extent of damage and send detailed reports at the earliest to facilitate payment of financial assistance to the affected.
Apprehending a medium level flood in Mahanadi system, the state government has already deployed adequate teams of national and state disaster response teams.