Heavy showers set off due to depression above the Bay of Bengal crushed many areas of Orissa today, troubling usual life and hindering Durga puja festivities.

The depression, which lay centered at approximately 300 km east-south-east of Gopalpur, is possibly to strengthen into a deep depression, a elder meteorological official expressed. The recent environmental state and numerical weather prediction (NWP) models recommended that the system is expected to move north-westward.

Constantly as intense downpour washed lot of places since yesterday, the Met office forecasted that much more rain and thundershower at mostly all the places over coastal Orissa and some places over interior region. Extreme to very extreme rainfall was predicted at few places in coastal belt and the Met office counsel hoisting of Local Cautionary signal number-III in harbor of Orissa.

As sea form was prone to be tough, fishermen were signaled not to go into the sea. Stormy wind with pace reaching 45 to 55 kmph was predictable to sweep up the coast.

Never-ending rains and squally wind affected the Durga puja festivities in the area.