Malkangiri: Cyclonic storm Daye left a trail of destruction in Malkangiri district and virtually cut it off from the rest of the state after making landfall near Gopalpur in Ganjam district early Friday before heading off towards Chhattisgarh.
As heavy rain battered the district, water gushed into several villages destroying properties worth lakhs. Malkangiri town was submerged under two feet of standing water in all the main roads.
The district recorded 1,163.8 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, said MET sources.
Meanwhile, fire brigade and Odisha Disaster Response Action Force (ODRAF) teams rescued more than 50 people and sheltered them in nearby schools.
People in many villages including Butiguda, Satyamguda, Patra Guda, Talasahi, Kumutiguda, MV-2, MV-3 and MV-50 were marooned by flood water, a report said.
The Poteru river flowed 10 feet over the bridge at Poteru and resulted in huge loss of properties. Similarly, the link between Malkangiri and Kalimela was cut off due to an overflowing Tamasa river. Overflow of water in several canals between Shikhapalli and Padia disrupted communication at many places. Connectivity between Malkangiri and Chhattisgarh was snapped as the water was flowing five feet over a bridge on Saberi river.
Malkangiri Collector Manish Agrawal visited all affected regions to monitor rescue operation. The affected people would be given cooked food for the next seven days and daily allowances, said official sources.
On the other hand, two lakh saplings worth one crore rupees have been destroyed after the cyclone passed Malkangiri district, said sources in the forest department. A boundary wall, 700 feet in length, of Central Nursery at MV-7 collapsed in the flood water of Tamasa River and damaging saplings. Four gates of Balimela dam was opened at 11 am to release the flood water, it was learnt.