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Fresh rain alert for south-coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema district till December 2
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy told the state assembly on Friday that his government was taking up relief and rescue measures without delay in the flood-affected areas.
Even as south-coastal and Rayalaseema districts of Andhra Pradesh are limping back to normal following last week’s torrential rain, the India Meteorological Department on Friday predicted more rainfall in the region till December 2.
Scattered rainfall was reported in parts of Chittoor, including the temple town of Tirupati for a couple of hours on Friday morning with Nagari town bordering Tamil Nadu recording a maximum of 2 mm rainfall. The Tirupati International Airport at Renigunta also recorded scanty rainfall of 0.5 mm till Friday evening.
A weather forecast bulletin, however, from the IMD Amaravati said heavy to very heavy rainfall may be witnessed in parts of Rayalaseema and south-coastal Andhra, particularly Chittoor and Nellore in the next three to four days. The state government has put the district authorities on high alert due to possible breach of tanks which are already filled to the brim due to recent heavy rains, leading to inundation of villages downstream.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy told the state assembly on Friday that his government was taking up relief and rescue measures without delay in the flood-affected areas.
Referring to last week’s floods in the state, he said Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur and Nellore districts were badly affected by heavy rain and floods like never before. He said that all the district authorities were involved in relief work and were being supervised by ministers and elected representatives of the respective areas.
Reddy said the flash floods were caused due to unprecedented heavy rainfall in a short span of time, which led to the flooding of villages downstream of Pincha and Annamayya reservoirs on Cheyyeru following a breach in its bund. In a span of a few hours, almost 51 mandals of Kadapa district received an average rainfall of 10.7 cm. Heavy rain also lashed Seshachalam Hills in Tirupati and other parts of Chittoor district.
“By the wee hours of November 19, the inflows to Annamayya reservoir crossed 3.2 lakh cusecs, while its discharge capacity was only 2.17 lakh cusecs, which resulted in a breach to the project, causing unfortunate damage. The officials have alerted the villages and immediately taken over the rescue operations by shifting 400 families to safe places and providing shelter to 900 people in relief camps, saving hundreds of people with their efforts,” he said.
A total of 1990 villages in 119 mandals of four districts were affected by the floods, of which 211 villages were completely inundated leading to a death toll of 44 people while 16 are still missing. The CM said that 1169 houses were completely damaged and 5434 houses were partially damaged.
