E-Paper
At least 5 killed in 48 hours after heavy rain batters Andhra, Telangana
Andhra Pradesh disaster management commissioner Kanna Babu said the deep depression in the Bay of Bengal crossed the coast at Kakinada between 6.30 am and 7.30 am on Tuesday, resulting in heavy rains accompanied by gale with a wind speed of 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph.
At least five people died after heavy rain pummelled Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana due to deep depression in the Bay of Bengal in the last two days.
Andhra Pradesh disaster management commissioner Kanna Babu said the deep depression in the Bay of Bengal crossed the coast at Kakinada between 6.30 am and 7.30 am on Tuesday, resulting in heavy rains accompanied by gale with a wind speed of 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph.
Two persons were killed due to collapse of a retaining wall in Ganapathi Nagar of Munagada block and another due to drowning in Varaha river in Cheedikada block in Visakhapatnam.
One person died when a wall collapsed on him in Bommuru village on the outskirts of Rajahmundry in East Godavari district and another person died due to landslide in Vidyadharapuram in Vijayawada city in Krishna district.
Heavy rains ranging from 11 cm to 24 cm hit different parts of coastal Andhra. The highest rainfall till 5 pm on Tuesday was 24.3 cm from Thallarevu, followed by 22.8 cm in Rayavaram, 20.7 cm Ramachandrapuram, 20.5 cm in Mummidivaram (all in East Godavari district) and 20.3 cm in Akiveedu in West Godavari district.
Viskahapatnam, too, received extremely heavy rainfall ranging from 11.4 cm to 20.5 cm in different parts of the district. The wind speed was so intense that a 80-metre long Bangladeshi merchant vessel, MV MAA, drifted aground on Vizag beach late on Monday night.
A port official said the Coast Guard and the Navy would extend human assistance to the crew. All the 15 crew members of the empty vessel are safe, he said.
Meanwhile, Krishna river has been receiving huge inflows up to six lakh cusecs at Prakasam barrage in Vijayawada due to heavy rains in the upstream, as a result, the authorities alerted the people on the banks of the river on either side of the barrage.
The revenue department authorities served notices on Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and 35 others whose residences are located on the river bank, asking them to move to safer places as there is a possibility of their residences getting submerged in river water.
This is the second time in the last two weeks that Naidu and others were served notices to vacate their houses. However, Naidu is presently staying in Hyderabad along with the family.
According to a bulletin from the state relief department, as many as 40 villages in 10 blocks in Visakhapatnam were affected by the heavy rains. As many as 350 houses were inundated and three teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed to evacuate 3,700 people belonging to 900 families who were evacuated in the district.
Similarly, 11 villages in six blocks of East Godavari were affected by heavy rains and around 1,000 people were moved to safer places.
Several areas in the city were inundated due to the incessant rains since last night in the city.
In neighbouring Telangana too, several areas saw very heavy rainfall. Hyderabad has been the worst affected due to incessant rain, resulting in heavy water logging and traffic snarls at several places. The average rainfall ranged from 2 cm to 4 cm at several places since Tuesday morning.
Water entered several houses in Hassannagar, Shastripuram, Tallabkatta, Ghousenagar, Osmannagar, Jalpally and Teegalkunta in the old city of Hyderabad.
