2,320 houses damaged due to rain and flood

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government on Friday said heavy rain in the State and the flood triggered by it have affected over four lakh people in 21 districts.The calamity has so far claimed two lives, one in a wall collapse in Keonjhar and another due to drowning in Jajpur district, an official at the Special Relief Commissioner’s (SRC) office said. River embankments were breached in at least five places in Jajpur, Boudh and Jagatsinghpur ditricts. There were three breaches in Jajpur and one each in Boudh and Jagatsinghpur. The SRC said 4,11,338 people in 667 gram panchayats spread over 136 blocks and 101 wards in 26 Urban Local Bodies were affected while 51,678 people were evacuated from low-lying areas to safer places. As many as 442 kitchen centres were opened to provide food to the affected people. At least 2,320 houses were damaged in the heavy rain and floods.