Heavy rain continues to batter AP - TeluguPeople.com News

HYDERABAD: Heavy rain triggered by northeast monsoon and a low pressure area over Bay of Bengal lashed several parts of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth consecutive day on Friday, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people from low-lying areas.

Low lying areas continued to remain under water in number of towns and villages, particularly in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.

Hundreds of houses have been damaged due to the rainfall, rendering many people homeless.Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and shifted to emergency relief camps.

The rain has claimed over ten lives and crops over a vast area of land has been destroyed. "The situation is very grim as the entire delta area is completely inundated. Drains and tanks are overflowing and there is a threat of breaches occurring at some places because of the nonstop rain," said Guntur district collector S Suresh Kumar over phone.

In Guntur district, 36 relief camps have been opened for 11,000 people who were evacuated from rain-ravaged villages, he said. Six lift-irrigation scheme workers, who were stuck in flood at Chilakaluripet and Yedlapadu since Thursday, were rescued on Friday with the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel, the collector said.

River Krishna is in spate with a heavy inflow of floodwater. Consequently, 70 crest gates were lifted at Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada to discharge 1.18 lakh cusecs of water into the Bay of Bengal.

In Srikakulam district in north coastal Andhra, more than 45,000 people have been shifted to relief camps as heavy rain continues to lash the district.

Several rivers including Vamsasadhara and Bahuda in north coastal Andhra and rivulets were in spate at many other places. The rain has disrupted buses and train services in north coastal Andhra.

Hyderabad and various parts of Telangana also received heavy rainfall for the last few days, which led to water logging on roads and also several residential colonies.

The heavy downpour and waterlogging resulted in massive traffic jams making it difficult for vehicle drivers to find their way through. As the railway track at Golantri remained under a sheet of two-feet of water, train services between Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar were cancelled.

In East Godavari district, headquarters town Kakinada remained submerged, throwing life out of gear. Incessant rain have also left Hyderabad-Secunderabad twin cities battered.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke to the collectors of Srikakulam, Prakasam, Guntur and others districts late on Thursday night and directed them to give top priority to rescue operations, shifting people to safer places and organizing other relief measures, official sources said here on Friday.

He directed the officials to help the farmers and take steps to strengthen bunds of tanks and other water bodies.

The CM also asked the chief secretary to coordinate with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) police, fire and other emergency personnel in rescue and relief operations.

A report from Visakhapatnam said two women were feared to have been washed away following heavy rain in the city for the last four days.

Also, roads in many parts of the city have borne the brunt of the heavy rainfall.

While a 70-year-old woman, a resident of MVP colony, was feared to have been swept in a drain in the city, another woman from M Koduru village of Madugula mandal was washed away in Tacheru canal.

Visakhapatnam district collector Solomon Arokiaraj said the two women remained untraceable so far.

Several roads in Akkayyapalem Dwarankangar, Chin Waltar, Peda Waltair, Seethammadhara, Seetampeta, Muralingar, Madhavadhara, Kancharapalem and Jnanapuram have been badly damaged causing traffic problems.

The incessant rain has left several parts of Kobbarithota, Prasad Garden, Poorna Market, Velampeta, Railway New colony and old town area waterlogged.

Visakhapatnam district received 52.9 mm of rainfall against the normal of 5.8 mm, Bheemunipatnam got 122.2 mm rain, Visakhapatnam city 101.4 mm and Anakapalli 86.4 mm in the last 24 hours, sources said.

Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation commissioner MV Satyanarayana in a statement said that the loss to various properties of the civic body owing to rains during the last four days has been estimated at around Rs 15 crore, of which road damage alone accounts for Rs 8-9 crore.

He said a total of 108 families, including 66 from Ekalavya colony, in the downstream of Meghadrigedda reservoir had been evacuated to Kalyananmantapam.

According to railway sources, some trains have been cancelled, some short terminated and others diverted due to incessant rain, flooding and inundation of certain areas including the railway tracks.