Unprecedented rainfall paralyses life in Vijayawada

 

 

 

UNPRECEDENTED rainfall in thepast twodaysparalysedlife at several places in Andhra Pradesh, especially in Vijayawada and vicinity while 17,000 rain-affected people wereevacuatedacross thestate. Budameru, a rivulet on the outskirts of Vijayawada suffered a breach and overflowed at several points on Sunday, leading to flooding at many citylocalities such asAjitSingh Nagar, Swathi Theatre area, PoliceNagar area andwest and central constituencies. According to footage from vernacularnewschannels,severalcarsand vehiclesweresubmergedin these areas and others also in Vijayawada due to the flooding.

 

At Rajarajeswari Peta in the city, people were seen wading through chest-deep water on a flooded street. Addressing a press conference at the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) in Tadepalli, Chief Minister N ChandrababuNaidusaidmassive amountsofrainfallrocked the state. “Due to the heavy rain, Vijayawada and Guntur cities have been completely marooned.Vijayawada-Guntur national highway at Kaza and Vijayawada-HyderabadnationalhighwayatJaggaiahpetawere totallymarooned,” saidNaidu. According to the CM, Jaggaiahpeta received 26 cm rainfall in 24 hours while 14 mandals registeredover 20 cm rainfall. He said 94 more places in 14 districts received rainfall between 7 and 12 cm and added that nine rain-related deaths and one missing case were reported. Focusing on Budameru’s woes,Naiduobserved that rain water from the upper reaches in Khammam, Nalgonda and other places was rushing into the rivulet, resulting in the flooding of several places in Vijayawada. Noting that up to 2 lakh cusecs of rainwater entered Budameru thisway,he said the state is unable to estimate as to how much more water is expected to flow in. Because of weak bunds in some places and other issues, NaidusaidBudameru flooding stalled power generation at VTPS power station near Vijayawada.

 

Further,hesaidawaterchannel dug up to divertwater from Budameru to Tammileru for onward diversion to Kolleru lake suffered a breach and it was allegedly not repaired in the past five years. “Due to this, VTPS is at risk of being submerged and Vijayawada is also at risk. If that had been properly done, today this situation would not have come,” he asserted. According to the CM, flood water supposed to be diverted to Kolleru lake was turning towards Vijayawada and it resultedin thecitybeing flooded. “We are making reinforcements downstream of Prakasam Barrage with sandbags and other means and alerted the district collectors,” said Naidu on the measures being taken to alleviate rain woes. Further, the CM highlighted that 17,000 rain-affected peoplewereevacuated to107relief camps while over 1.1 lakh hectares of agricultural fields and 7,360 hectares of horticultural fields were damaged. Naidusaid arrangements for food were being made at the rehabilitation centres for thepeople.Reliefmeasures alsoinclude thedistributionof 25 kg rice, 1 kg dal, 1 kg sugar, 1 kg onions and 1 kg oil, he added.

 

HEAVY RAINS LASH MANY PARTS OF TELANGANA: HEAVY rains continued tolash many parts of Telangana, including Hyderabad, on Sunday and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy held an emergency review with ministers, officials and electedmembers. Reddy,whoreviewed the situation in the rain-affected areas, spoke to ministers - Bhatti Vikramarka, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Tummala Nageshwar Rao, Damodara Raja Narasimha and Jupalli Krishna Rao over the phone and enquired about the relief operations in the submerged areas. In its weather warning, theMetCentrehereon Sunday said very heavy to extremely heavy rainisverylikely tooccur at isolated places in Adilabad, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy Narayanpet, Jogulamba Gadwal, Mahbubabad, JangaondistrictsofTelangana.

 

 

 

A SPELL of heavy rain early on Sunday inundated several arterial roads and residential areas in Assam’s Guwahati, disrupting vehicular movement and causing inconvenience to residents of thecapitalcityof thenortheastern state. People were seen wading through knee-deepwatersin some areas of the city while the water levelreached up to thechestin severallocalities. Inundation was reported fromZooRoad,NabinNagar, Ganeshguri, Hedayetpur, Guwahati Club, Ulubari, Hatigaon, Gita Nagar, Maligaon, Lachit Nagar, Chandmari, Panjabari, Jorabat,Jatia,Jyotikuchi and Ghoramara and RG Baruah Road areas. The three-hourdownpour also led to waterlogging in GS Road, Anil Nagar, VIP Road, Tarun Nagar, Rajgarh Road,Jorabat,RukminiGaon, Survey and Chatribari areas in the city. Vehicles on GS Roadwerestopped atDispur frommoving further towards Choy Mile due to flooding in Rukmini Gaon area. They were also diverted through the Last Gate point along Survey-Beltola Road, which was also submerged. Rainwater accumulatedin hundreds of houses in the ‘smart’ city.