Fatal Wall-Collapse Incidents
Three people, including a three-year-old boy, were killed in separate wall-collapse incidents in Odisha on Tuesday as the state crossed its normal monsoon rainfall quota with a month of the season still remaining, officials said on Tuesday.
The deaths were reported from Mayurbhanj and Sambalpur districts amid a spell of extremely heavy rainfall, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rain in Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj over the next 24 hours.
Odisha recorded 1,154.3 mm of rainfall between June 1 and August 31 against its normal seasonal rainfall of 1,150.2 mm, marginally exceeding the June-September quota, according to official data.
The state had ended June with a 47 per cent rainfall deficit, but received 91 per cent excess rainfall in July and 15 per cent above normal rainfall in August, more than making up for the early-season shortfall.
Also Read: Odisha floods: Death toll rises to 13; schools shut across districts
Mayurbhanj was the worst affected by the latest spell, with Bangiriposhi recording the state’s highest 24-hour rainfall of 309.2 mm, according to the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar.
Three deaths
In Mayurbhanj, 49-year-old Singo Murmu was killed after the mud walls and tiled roof of a house collapsed on her while she was sleeping at around 4am in Matkamdihi village.
In a similar incident in Bangiriposi, Lakshmi Singh from Bhulanpur village, died after a weakened mud wall collapsed on her while she was removing household belongings from the house.
Similarly from Sambalpur district, a three-year-old child was killed after a mud wall collapsed on him at Gobindpur New Colony. The wall, weakened by several days of rain, suddenly collapsed at around noon, trapping the child underneath.
More than 13.5 lakh people in 1,895 villages across 10 districts were affected by floods between August 13 and 26, while 27 people died from drowning, wall collapses, snakebites or being swept away by floodwaters.
Slow movement of low-pressure systems
Meteorologist Uma Shankar Das attributed the prolonged spells of intense rain partly to the slow movement of low-pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal.
“Generally, when a low-pressure weather system moves slowly, it travels around 240 to 340 km per day,” Das said.
However, a low-pressure system that formed over the northwest Bay of Bengal on July 25 travelled only about 470 km in four days, averaging around 118km per day, he said. “This is significantly slower even than a slow-moving low-pressure system,” Das said.
The first low-pressure system in July brought 213.9mm of rainfall to Odisha between July 1 and 6, while a second system produced 103.9mm between July 15 and 18, allowing the systems to remain over the region long enough to dump substantial amounts of rain.
Das said research indicated that global warming and climate change could be contributing to the slowing movement of low-pressure systems.
“Low-pressure weather systems are tending to move more slowly. As a result, low-pressure systems are being observed to remain active for longer periods, causing significant rainfall over shorter periods,” he said.
Heavy rain on Thursday
The system is expected to bring intense rainfall to several parts of Odisha until the morning of September 3, prompting the weather office to issue red, orange and yellow warnings for different districts.
An orange alert has been issued for heavy to very heavy rainfall in Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj over the next 24 hours.
Heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms and gusty winds has also been forecast in Balasore, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Angul and Subarnapur.