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Andhra: Rain recedes in coastal area, but 17 still missing
An official bulletin from the state disaster management authority (SDMA) in the evening said the death toll remained at 24 but the fate of 17 people, believed to have been washed away in the floods in Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur and Nellore, is still not known.
Heavy rain that has wreaked havoc in the south coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh as well as the Rayalaseema region over the last few days lifted on Sunday, bringing some much-needed respite to the districts in these regions, state authorities said.
An official bulletin from the state disaster management authority (SDMA) in the evening said the death toll remained at 24 but the fate of 17 people, believed to have been washed away in the floods in Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur and Nellore, is still not known.
“There has been no trace of 11 persons, who were washed away in the floods of Cheyyeru river due to the breach of Annamayya reservoir near Pulaputhur village of Nandalur block in Kadapa district. Four teams of NDRF and three of SDRF are still on the rescue operations,” the bulletin read.
Four people in Chittoor, and one each in Anantapur and Nellore, were also missing till Sunday evening.
“There has been very scanty and scattered rainfall in these four districts, ranging from 0.02 mm in Chittoor to 1.7 mm in Nellore. However, there was 4 mm rainfall in Kurnool,” the SDMA bulletin said.
However, the flood fury continued to ravage Kadapa, Nellore, and Chittoor districts due to heavy rain in the last three days. The bridge over Papagni river in Kamalapuram block of Kadapa district collapsed, bringing traffic to halt on this road.
In Chittoor district, a high alert was sounded in several villages like Mullapudi, Padipeta, Kuntrapakam, Tanapalli, Balijepalli and Gangireddipalli, as Rayalacheruvu — a major irrigation tank of Ramachandrapuram block — is on the brink of a breach. Though the officials have been trying to plug the breach, they evacuated thousands of people from these villages to safer places.
There are reports of at least three causeways on the Swarnamukhi river in Chittoor district getting washed away, cutting road links to as many as 30 villages. The officials told them that it would take at least 20 days to restore the road links.
Meanwhile, in the temple town of Tirupati, several colonies are still submerged. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) authorities, however, restored the traffic on the ghat roads to Tirumala.
In the Nellore district, the Penna river has been overflowing for the last three days, inundating as many as 29 villages. Even in Nellore town, several colonies remained submerged on Sunday.
The SDMA authorities said as many as 181 blocks, 1,366 villages and four towns were affected due to heavy rain in the last two days, displacing over 36,000 people. As many as 2,007 houses were damaged and 1,137 houses are still submerged.
As many as 31,827 people have been shifted to 274 relief camps where they are being provided with food and water. “According to preliminary estimates, agriculture crop in 2.41 lakh hectares and horticulture crop in 1.86 lakh hectares were totally damaged,” the bulletin said.
Principal secretary (revenue) Usha Rani said each affected family would be given 25 kg of rice, one kg each of red gram, onions, potatoes and palm oil free of cost. The loss of crops is being estimated and suitable compensation would be worked out, she said.
