Heavy rains continued to batter the northern parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the second day on Thursday as governments in both the states asked all district authorities to remain on high alert.
The northern Telangana and north-coastal Andhra districts are witnessing heavy rains due to a depression over Odisha, which moved in the west-northwest direction and lay over south Chhattisgarh and adjoining Vidarbha.
“It is very likely to move towards the north-west direction and weaken gradually into a well-marked low pressure during the next 24 hours,” Hyderabad meteorology department’s head of weather forecast Dr K Nagaratna said.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a high-level review meeting with officials of the relief and rehabilitation departments and asked them to be in touch with the district administration.
He instructed his ministers, members of Parliament and legislators to remain available to people in their respective districts and constituencies and monitor relief operations wherever required in coordination with police and other officers.
In Telangana, the Godavari river and its tributaries are in spate due to heavy rains measuring 10-12cm, disrupting normal life in several parts of Adilabad, Mancherial, Komuram Bheem, Karimnagar and Warangal districts. Reports said several tribal villages in Komuram Bheem district were cut off from other parts of the district due to overflowing of streams.
{{/usCountry}}In Telangana, the Godavari river and its tributaries are in spate due to heavy rains measuring 10-12cm, disrupting normal life in several parts of Adilabad, Mancherial, Komuram Bheem, Karimnagar and Warangal districts. Reports said several tribal villages in Komuram Bheem district were cut off from other parts of the district due to overflowing of streams.
{{/usCountry}}Five teachers were rescued from being washed away in Vagapur village of Mavala block in Adilabad on Thursday when their car was caught in the midway of a stream.
State forest minister Jogu Ramanna, who was touring the nearby areas, rushed there along with a fire engine and managed to rescue Ramesh, Praveen Kumar, Pratap, Chandrasekhar and Sujatha, but their car was washed away in the flood waters.
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 the sea off the Kakinada coast in East Godavari district in a mechanised boat on August 7, were rescued after an intense search operation launched by the Coast Guard, They were found at Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam district hundreds of kilometres away after they were caught in a stormy weather.
Several villages amidst the distributaries of the Godavari in East Godavari are facing a threat of inundation due to the increasing water levels in the river. East Godavari District collector Karthikeya Mishra has asked people to stay indoors and declared a three-day holiday for all schools and colleges.
Heavy rains in Srikakulam district resulted in the disruption of road connectivity to several villages, as two major rivers -- Nagavali and Vamasadhara, began overflowing.
Almost all the major dams in Telangana and Andhra have been receiving massive inflows of waters. The Srisailam reservoir on the Krishna river is receiving over 1.5 lakh cusecs of water from upstream of the river.
The water level in the dam has reached the height of 872ft against the full reservoir level of 880ft. More than 75,000 cusecs of water is being released from the dam to the Nagarjunasagar dam in the downstream.
In Godavari river basin, dams like Sripadasagar and Sriramsagar reservoirs in Telangana are getting huge flood waters. Several tanks like Ramappa and Laknavaram are filled to the brim due to the heavy rains.