After being battered by two strong gales and blinding rains, the wall gave away on the evening of October 31, allowing the prisoners to flee in pitch darkness. ``Ever since October 29, when the cyclone hit the state, there has been no electricity. That made things much easier for them,'' state I G (Prisons) S M Mathur told PTI.

The jail, spread over 18 acres, housed more than 900 inmates at the time when the tragedy struck. Two dim lanterns and a few torches were the only source of light in the sea of darkness that enveloped its isolated environs, Mathur said.

The inner perimeter boundary walls had already been identified by the jail administration as weak structures. ``But before we could do anything about them, the inevitable happened,'' Mathursaid. Two undertrials, however, did not have all the luck as they were nabbed by police on Thursday evening.Jail authorities say the undertrials were already agitated because they were not served food till 6 pm. ``The contractor who served us food had been looted on his way to the prison and there was no way they could have been consoled. Moreover, the superintendent was also away in Delhi on training,'' Mathur said.

Admitting that the jail was understaffed, he said only 15 guards were deputed on the day of the incident against a required strength of 105 in all eight blocks. There was no patrolling behind the outer perimeter due to the rains. The generators were also not working, he laments.

Besides Choudwar, the sub-jails in Kujang, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Badamba have been badly hit by the cyclone. The Bhubaneswar Special jail has also suffered major damages. Mathur and the Joint IG (Prisons) have made a preliminary inspection and submitted the report to the State Government. ``It willtake more than Rs one crore to make good the fury the cyclone unleashed on the jails of Orissa", Mathur said.

Slum area lies unattended