Bhubaneswar: With the water levels in the Subarnarekha, Brahmani and Ib recording a rise during the day, the Orissa government Thursday issued a flood alert for four districts. The administrations of Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Balasore are on alert. The government has instructed the collectors to deploy teams from the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and fire services as and when required. Reports in the evening said the water level in Subarnarekha started receding, however.
The Subarnarekha water level that had receded Wednesday rose Thursday due to the opening of gates at the Galidhi barrage in Jharkhand. Special relief commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said the river was flowing above the danger mark at Rajghat. Sethi said 10 ODRAF teams have been put in readiness, and an additional 10 have been kept in reserve to deal with possible flood situations. Fire services units are also on standby. An NDRF unit has been placed in Balasore. The latest SRC report, however, suggested that the flood water in Subarnarekha started falling since afternoon and a similar situation existed at Rajghat lower stream. 
About 25,000 people in 29 villages under 7 GPs of Baliapal Block and 63 villages under 19 GPs of Bhogarai Block in Balasore district have been affected. The district administration is closely monitoring the situation. Two persons of Bhadrak district are missing due to floods, while the body of another missing person, Amita Nayak from village Uasahi in Kasimpur GP under Dhamnagar block, has been recovered.
The weather office has forecast heavy rainfall in one or two places in north Orissa Thursday and Friday. Due to heavy rainfall in the catchments, the flood situation has worsened in River Brahmani as also its tributaries and distributaries. The level was going up in Ib river too. Two blocks namely Kuanrmunda and Subdega and two ULBs (Sundargarh municipality and Rourkela municipal corporation of Sundargarh district have been affected by the floods.
“As many as 1600 people have been evacuated and placed in safe shelters. Required dry food has been provided to these people and free kitchens have been opened. One ODRAF team and the local fire service teams have been deployed and the district administration of Sundargarh is closely monitoring the situation,” SRC officials said.
Due to heavy inflow to Rengali reservoir, 10 gates of Rengali dam has also been opened. This is likely to cause low to medium floods in the downstream areas, affecting the districts of Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Kendrapada. “Keeping that in view, the concerned collectors have been alerted to remain in full preparedness to face any eventuality. The flow in Birupa river has been reduced to minimize its contribution to Brahmani,” they added.
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