North Telangana, coastal Andhra battle downpour
HYDERABAD: Heavy rains continued to batter the northern parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the second successive day on Thursday, as both the state governments kept their respective administrations on high alert.
The northern Telangana and north-coastal Andhra districts are witnessing heavy rains due to depression over Odisha, which moved in west-northwest direction and lay over South Chhattisgarh and adjoining Vidarbha.
“It is very likely to move towards north-west direction and weaken gradually into a wellmarked low pressure during next 24 hours,” Hyderabad meteorology department’s head of weather forecast Dr K Nagaratna said.
In Telangana, the Godavari river and its tributaries are in spate due to heavy rains measuring 10-12 cm, disrupting normal life in several parts of Adilabad, Mancherial, Komuram Bheem, Karimnagar and Warangal districts.
According to reports reaching the state capital, several tribal villages in Komuram Bheem district were cut off from other parts of the district due to overflowing of streams.
At Vagapur village of Mavala block in Adilabad, five teachers were rescued from being washed away on Thursday morning, when the car in which they were travelling was caught in a stream. Forest minister Jogu Ramanna, who was touring the nearby areas, rushed there along with a fire engine and managed to rescue the teachers , but the car was washed away.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a high-level review with the officials of the relief and rehabilitation departments and asked them to be in touch with the district administration. He instructed that ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs should be available to the people in their respective districts and constituencies and should monitor relief works as well as coordinate with police and other officials.
In Andhra Pradesh, the flood situation is very grim as heavy rains battered several areas of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, East and West Godavari districts.
Seven fishermen, who ventured into sea off Kakinada coast in East Godavari district in a mechanised boat on August 7, have not returned.
An intense search operation launched by the Coast Guard found them at Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam district hundreds of kilometres away, caught in a stormy weather.
Several villages amidst distributaries of Godavari river in East Godavari are facing inundation threat due to increasing water levels in the river.
East Godavari District collector Karthikeya Mishra asked the people to stay indoors and declared a three-day holiday for all schools and colleges.
Meanwhile, heavy rains in Srikakulam district resulted in disruption of road connectivity to several villages.
Almost all the major dams in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been receiving massive inflows of waters.