Malkangiri: The flood situation has somewhat improved in Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Tuesday with a decrease in rainfall since Monday night. However, hundreds of villages still remain inundated while road transport to several places remains cut off.
While Even today, vehicular traffic on the Jeypore-Malkangiri main road has returned to normal, the Poteru area of the district is still submerged. About eight feet high water is flowing over the Kanyashram bridge. Water is flowing 5 to 10 feet in MV90, MV7, and MV96. Movement of vehicles on National Highway No 326 in the district remains affected.
Due to low rainfall in the district last night, water level has receded from in Pangam, MV90, MV7, and MV96. However, water is flowing about 2 to 3 over the Poteru bridge and 3 to 4 feet over the Kangurukunda bridge. Traffic between Malkangiri and Kalimela remains suspended. Similarly, traffic between Kalimela and Maliya is blocked due to as water is flowing 3-4 feet over Kalimela Kanyashram bridge. Communication between Malkangiri and Chhattisgarh is also cut off as water is flowing 4-5 feet water over Sukma bridge.
Even though the water level has receded over some of the bridges, the condition in the villages is still grim. The affected people from the flood shelters are returning to their homes and are fixing the damaged houses. Many people’s houses have been destroyed, while hundreds of acres of agriculture land have been covered with sand and mud.
As many as six ODRAF teams have been deployed to rescue the flood-affected people. About 180 people in Motu and 800 people in Poteru have been rescued and sheltered in safe places.