By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 10 2019: Around 1.77 lakh people in nine southern and western districts in Odisha have been affected by the flash floods in different rivers triggered by heavy rain, Odisha government said on Saturday.

The floods claimed four lives and two are still missing. “Situation is slowly becoming normal. The damages both to public and private properties due to the floods are being assessed”, a statement released by the revenue and disaster management department said.

The nine districts which have been affected by the current floods are – Kalahandi, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Sambalpur in western Odisha and Gajapati, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nowrangpur and Rayagara in the south. Of the 1.77 lakh people affected by the calamity maximum, ninety thousand were from Kalahandi district.

The authorities of different districts had evacuated 16,424 people from marooned villages and they were housed in 99 shelters where the free kitchen had been made operational. In some districts, people are still there in the shelters.

Though the rain has subsided after the deep depression formed in the Bay of Bengal weakened into a low pressure and crossed the state border, villages in some districts are reported to be still marooned.

The local met office has again predicted a fresh round of heavy rains in different parts of the state from coming Monday under the impact of yet another low pressure expected to be formed in the Bay of Bengal.