**Sambalpur:** Over the past two days Odisha has witnessed unprecedented rainfall in most parts. On the intervening night of July 21 and 22, the situation in Sambalpur worsened as the city received a whopping 622 mm downpour causing a flood like situation.
While 5,000 people were marooned, the rains caused immense inconvenience to human being and a huge loss of property. However, a timely and well-coordinated efforts by the government agencies and emergency services ensured zero casualty and minimised losses.
Wasting no time the Sambalpur district administration, police, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and Odisha Fire Services personnel swung into action and worked relentlessly inspite of heavy rain and rescued the people and shifted them to temporary rehabilitation centre.
SP Sanjeev Arora led the rescue operations which started during the midnight and continued till late Sunday morning. “This is the highest ever rainfall recorded in the city as per the data provided by IMD Bhubaneswar. Due to the teamwork and timely action of the combined team the lives of many people in the town was saved. The team is still on work to help the people in distress,” Arora said.
