By NNN-PTI,
Bhubaneshwar, India : The flood situation in Orissa’s Mahanadi deltaic region was grim on Friday as receding waters exposed the miseries of nearly 42 lakh affected people and a fragile relief machinery.
As the death toll due to the deluge stood at 56, trails of destruction could be seen in the worst-affected Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jagatgsinghpur and Puri districts where at least 240 breaches on embankments still left eight lakh people marooned, official sources said.(One Lakh:100,000)
With flood waters sweeping away villages, the agony of those affected compounded in the absence of adequate relief material, drinking water, clothes and polythene sheets, they said.
While the number of districts hit by floods rose to 19 including Nuapada, the number of villages completely marooned by floods increased to 871, they said.
About 26,000 people in some villages of Delang area of Puri district and around 15,000 at Kujang area in Jagatsinghpur were yet to get relief, he said.
In a bid to ensure speedy rehabilitation of the affected people, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has asked the officials to complete assessment of the extent of damage caused to houses by the floods within 15 days.
Farmers were hit hard as about five lakh hectare of crop area was submerged while the gushing flood waters breached several roads at over 900 points, severely affecting road communications.