By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : At least three people have died and nearly one million people have been affected by flash floods in Orissa, officials said Thursday.
Heavy rains triggered by a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal have affected life across the state. It continued to pour in many parts of the state Thursday.
The three deaths occurred when walls of buildings came crashing down on the victims, Additional Commissioner (Relief) Benudhar Das said. One death took place in Bhadrak district and two people died in Jajpur.
Unofficial sources put the death toll across the staate at 10.
The state has 11 major rivers, and water levels in many of them have risen above danger level, Das told IANS.
Heavy rains and flooding have affected at least 12 of the 30 districts and marooned over 30 villages. The number affected could be about a million, the official said.
Most schools in flooded regions have been closed. Roads, communications and electricity supply have been disrupted.
Hundreds of trees were uprooted in coastal districts following squalls with wind speeds of 55-65 kmph. The wind storm in the Bay of Bengal also caused tidal waves Tuesday and Wednesday.
More than 30,000 people were evacuated from low lying areas to safer places, the officials said.