Cyclone Daye: Bhubaneswar residents heave sigh of relief

BHUBANESWAR: City residents on Friday heaved a sigh of relief as the city witnessed less rainfall compared to the IMD forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall under the impact of cyclone ‘Daye’.
The capital city recorded 26.1 mm rain between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Friday. Though it was not heavy rainfall, intermittent rain in some parts of the city created waterlogging situation in low-lying areas like Gouri Garden, Gouri Nagar and Nilakantheswar temple in Baramunda area.But the water pumps positioned there helped the residents to drain out the rain water.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), who had cancelled Muharram holiday of its employees for cyclone warning, received seven complaints of water-logging by evening hours. Irregular rain was also causing traffic jam in busy junctions of the city. People were seen taking shelters under the bridges between Fire Station square and Rasulgarh square blocking traffic flow.
The civic body positioned 11 pumps at various low-lying areas and the Odisha Fire Services placed six pumps at various locations. The multi-agency 24X7 control room at BMC comprising people from other line departments, BMC drainage division and BMC administrative staff were working continuously since Thursday morning. Thirteen teams across 13 sub-zones were deployed to monitor the situation across the city in 67 wards.