Balasore (Orissa), Sept 27 : Orissa is reeling under floods caused by heavy rains over the past few days across the state.

The situation in Balasore district continued to be grim for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday with three major rivers still in spate, leaving hundreds of villagers here marooned.

Floodwaters have entered the Balasore municipality area and two other urban local bodies of Jaleswar and Nilagiri, inundating low-lying areas and damaging thatched houses.

"It is a severe flood situation here. I haven't seen such kind of flood in our area in my lifetime. The government has not provided any kind of help, no relief has been provided to us, no polythene bags, no food, nothing has reached us," said Bhikari Mallick, a flood victim.

Flash floods, triggered following heavy rains due to a low pressure in the Bay of Bengal, has forced people to take temporary shelter on highlands in the district.

"We are suffering a lot. Our children are hungry. It is raining continuously due to which our houses have collapsed. We are on the road along with our family and cattle, and we have nothing to eat," said Kanchan Mallick, another flood victim.

According to officials, about half a million people in 610 villages are still marooned, and over one million in 2167 villages are badly affected across the state.

The authorities claimed they were doing their best to provide relief to the affected people.

"We have procured adequate quantity of rice (for relief package), and we have completed distribution of three days relief to the affected people that amounts to 6219 quintals. We are in process of distributing balance quantity of relief which is about 10700 some odd quintals for the remaining four days," said Alekh Choudhary Padhihary, Balasore District Collector.

Since July, more than 2,000 people in eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh have been killed by snake bites, drowning, diarrhea and due to house collapses after swollen rivers burst their banks as a result of incessant monsoon rains. (With inputs from ANI)