E-Paper
Godavari flows over danger mark, 19,000 evacuated in T’gana
Seven National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, including three at Bhadrachalam, two each at Mulugu and Bhupalpally have been deployed to take up rescue and relief operations immediately.
Hyderabad
More than 19,000 people were evacuated to relief camps in the northern Telangana districts with the Godavari receiving huge inflows due to heavy rains in its catchment areas, resulting in flooding of several villages all along the river course.
Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar, who held a review meeting with district collectors and other top officials to take stock of the situation arising due to heavy rains, instructed that the officials evacuate people from the low-lying areas in Mulugu, Bhupalpally and Bhadrachalam districts to avoid any loss of life due to the Godavari river crossing danger mark at several places.
Seven National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, including three at Bhadrachalam, two each at Mulugu and Bhupalpally have been deployed to take up rescue and relief operations immediately. About 16 persons were rescued at various places in the state by the NDRF teams.
Two shepherds were airlifted by the Indian Air Force at Chennur block in Mancherial district. The chopper carrying the shepherds landed in Ramagundam of Peddapalli district.
About 19,071 people have been shifted to 223 special camps put up across the State. Among these, 6,318 persons have been shifted to 43 camps in Bhadrachalam, 4,049 persons in 33 camps in Mulugu and 1,226 people have been accommodated in 20 camps in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.
Officials heaved a sigh of relief as water level at the Kadem project in Nirmal district receded on Thursday morning. The Kadem reservoir was overflowing due to unprecedented floods, as the irrigation department feared the dam might breach due to record inflows into the reservoir on Wednesday.
State forest minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy, who hails from Nirmal, said the project was now safe considering the drop down in the inflows. He predicted that the inflow would decrease further.
At Manthani town, a scene from the popular Telugu film Bahubali got repeated on Thursday, when a man carried a three-month old baby kept in a basket on his head. Since the Manthani town was inundated, the man waded through neck-deep water along with his wife and the baby on his head and shifted to a safer place from Marrivada. The video of a man carrying the baby on his head in the neck-deep water went viral on various social media platforms.
The state continued to receive incessant rains at many places on Thursday. More than 20 places received over 14 cm rainfall fall in the last 24 hours. While Arnakonda in Karimnagar received 23 cm of rains, Gundi in Nizamabad received 21.2 cm of rain and Bhimgar 19.1 cm in the same district.
With the IMD forecasting heavy to very heavy rains over the next couple of days in the state and with the Godavari river in spate, water levels at Bhadrachalam is expected to reach more than 70 feet by Friday. The district authorities ordered closure of traffic on the bridge connecting Bhadrachalam town with Kothagudem road.
Andhra on high alert
Meanwhile, several island villages in Konaseema, East and West Godavari districts remained inundated due to discharge of over 15 lakh cusecs of water from Godavari river at Polavaram and Dowleshwaram.
The disaster management authority officials informed chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy that that the flood water is likely to increase in the next 24 to 48 hours, which can go up to 23-24 lakh cusecs, as the water from all the reservoirs in the Godavari basin are being released.
The chief minister will take an aerial survey of flood-hit areas of the Godavari region on Friday, an official release from the CMO said.
Jagan instructed the authorities to be vigilant of heavy floods while reviewing Irrigation and to take up necessary measures to keep people safe by arranging relief camps with required facilities.
