A 2.6km stretch of an under construction concrete guard wall along the Marine Drive or the coastal highway off East Midnapore’s Tajpur collapsed on Wednesday morning under the brunt of tidal waves during Cyclone Yaas and left 3,000 homes in 14 coastal villages prone to long-term flooding.

By Thursday morning, hundreds of families had left their mud homes after gushing water had damaged several structures. Sources said that 400m of the proposed 3km guard wall had remained incomplete.

Explaining the reason for the collapse, an irrigation department official said additional support structures for the guard wall, work for which began in November last year, had not been installed yet.

“We ran out of our homes on Tuesday in terror, after we saw water levels rising in the dead of night,” said barber Dipen Barik, 45, who lives in a two-storey mud home in Jalda village in Talgachhari II panchayat. Dilip left for a relative’s home on Wednesday along with his wife, two school-going daughters, elderly mother-in-law and a differently-abled brother.

“Since Tuesday night we had camped on the roof of a neighbour’s home as water began to flow into our village,” he added. “We cannot make repairs until the guard wall is fixed. We are effectively homeless,” said his wife Durgamani, 42.

On Thursday, local officials explained that the demolished guard wall had robbed residents of the area of security from even regular tides.

Additionally, 1km of road cover of the Marine Drive highway was also lost during the onrush of water on Wednesday. Inaugurated in 2019, it was among the chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s dream projects slated to modernise Digha, and road cover had been completed except for two bridges connecting Mandarmani, Tajpur and Digha that would have slashed travel time for tourists by half.

Local panchayat pradhan Biswajit Jana, responding to claims that local residents had not received relief material even on Wednesday, said those who had chosen to remain in their homes had effectively stranded themselves.

“We could not reach them owing to the intense flooding. Those who evacuated and came to the relief camps however, were given supplies. The current levels of flooding are too high,” he said.

Local officials wondered if the guard wall could be repaired during upcoming monsoon amid a pandemic.

Around 13,000 people stand to be affected longterm by the crisis.

In November, the sanctioned Rs 70 crore project was initiated and 2.6km completed earlier this year. Local residents were then heartened, and this week stands dismayed at the apparent waste of resources.

“It is not clear who benefited from this, as both we and the government will suffer in the future,” said an employee of Ramnagar College.

Digha irrigation’s assistant engineer Swapan Mondal conceded that the missing support structures had caused the guard wall to collapse.

“Monsoon is always difficult for such work but we have intimated the district officials for new tenders immediately,” he said.

District officials added that several livestock had gone missing late on Thursday.