By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Over 20,000 people have been evacuated from Orissa’s coastal districts and moved to safer places as a wind storm in the Bay of Bengal caused heavy rains and tidal waves, an official said Wednesday.
The people living near the sea have been moved to cyclone shelters, high rise buildings and near by schools overnight as tidal waves entered into several human habitations in the coastal districts, Orissa’s additional special relief commissioner B. Baral told IANS.
At least three villages in the coastal districts of Kendrapada and some villages in its neighbouring districts of Jagatsinghpur and Balasore was affected by the sea water, he said.
Normal life has been affected in the state due to heavy rain in the past two days.
The water level in at least two rivers – Bansadhara and Rusikulya – rose above the danger level Wednesday, an official in the state revenue control room said.
The wind storm had crossed the Orissa coast Tuesday night and under its impact, extremely heavy rain of more than 25 cm os likely to occur at isolated places, the meteorological office here said.
Heavy to very heavy rain is likely at a few places in the state during the 24 hours to Thursday morning, he added.
Squalls with wind speeds reaching 55-65 km per hour from the north westerly direction are likely to prevail along and off Orissa coast, the official said.
As sea conditions are very rough along and off the coast, fishermen have been advised against venturing out to sea, while local cautionary signal number three had been hoisted at all Orissa ports, he added.