The Orissa government on Sunday started airdropping of relief materials in the flood marooned in Puri district, even as the official death toll in the current high flood reached 16.
Over a dozen people who were swept away in the strong current are yet to be traced.
Sonepur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Nayagarh and Boudh the worst-hit districts. Kendrapara district alone reported four major breaches. River Chitrotpala breached at three places while one breach occurred at Ukusahi in Paika river.
Over 17 lakh people in at least 19 districts of Orissa have been hit by flood in the Mahanadi river systems.
As many as 2,550 villages in 85 blocks and 13 urban local bodies were estimated to have been either flooded or marooned. Cuttack, Puri, Bargarh, Nuapara, Deogarh, Kendrapara and Jajpur districts bore the brunt of the flood while the death toll soared to 11.
At least 60,000 people have been evacuated by the Rapid Action Force (ODRAF). Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who along with revenue minister Surya Narayan Patro and Special Revenue Commissioner P.K. Mohapatra, made an aerial survey of the flood-hit districts, said the administration was trying to reach out all the affected people.
“The flood has caused huge damage. We are making our best efforts to provide relief materials, medicines and other essential to the affected people,” said the CM.