13,227 people from 294 villages evacuated due to rains in Andhra, says minister

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha said that on Sunday 13227 people were evacuated from 294 villages in five districts due to torrential downpours in the past two daysChief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the weather situation with senior officials and asked them to incorporate technologies such as drones to assess the deluge and accordingly plan the relief worksMeanwhile the depression over north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts which has been causing heavy rainfall over the past two days moved northwestwards to cross the southern states coast near Kalingapatnam in the wee hours of Sunday said an India Meteorological Department officialHome Minister Vangalapudi Anitha noted that 100 rehabilitation centres were set up in NTR Krishna Bapatla Guntur and Palnadu districts to accommodate the evacuees along with the arrangement of 61 medical campsUntil now nine people died due to the heavy rains Police NDRF and SDRF teams rescued 600 people from the marooned places As many as 17 NDRF and SDRF teams undertook rescue operations at 22 submerged places in seven districts she said in an official releaseCiting preliminary estimates Anitha said 62644 hectares of paddy crops and 7218 hectares of orchards were submergedFurther she highlighted that the command and control rooms and toll free numbers were set up in all the districts along with the appointment of nodal officers to monitor the situationThe chief minister who reviewed the weather situation with senior officials was apprised that 6000 people living downstream of Prakasam Barrage in Bapatla district were evacuatedIn a teleconference with officials Naidu observed that rain intensity has subsided on Sunday compared to August 31 quoting information from the districts but observed that some colonies and houses are still waterloggedDirecting officials to divert water from inundated roadways he tasked them to solve the flooding issues plaguing colonies and housesStating that some places received up to 27 cm rainfall the CM instructed officials to focus on these areas and noted that the record rainfall not seen in the past 50 years had occurredEven national highways turned into ponds due to the unprecedented deluge Write a letter to the National Highways Authority NHAI and work in coordination with it he directed officials according to a releaseAdvising officials to incorporate technologies such as drones to assess the deluge and accordingly plan the relief work Naidu instructed them to be careful of food and water contamination that could occur due to the floodsHe also instructed officials to take clean up works in the villages divert floodwaters from residential areas as soon as possible and also undertake sanitisation to avoid disease outbreaksCivil Supplies Minister N Manohar informed the CM that rice and some basic necessities were provided to the needy in some placesFollowing the subsidence of floods Naidu called for a survey of crop loss asset destruction and the distribution of aid to farmersThe CM estimated that up to 10 lakh cusecs of water could be discharged from Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada by Sunday evening directing officials to alert downstream villagers and evacuate themDGP Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao informed the CM that rail movement has been stopped at Rayanapadu railway station in NTR district due to floodingFollowing the stoppage of Tamil Nadu Express at the railway station the home minister noted that alternate travel arrangements through APSRTC buses are being made for the passengers to reach their destinationsVijayawada Municipal Commissioner H M Dhyanachandra told PTI Budameru canal is overflowing in multiple areas and there was a breach also Up to 12 wards were submerged Upstream gates were closed to arrest the inflows Around 3000 people were evacuated Assuring that the Budameru situation would come under control the municipal commissioner noted that two NDRF and two SDRF teams would be deployed for relief operationsEarlier a Meteorological Department official observed that the depression over north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts which has been causing heavy rainfall over the past two days moved northwestwards to cross the southern states coast near Kalingapatnam in the wee hours of SundayThe weather system crossed near Kalingapatnam between 1230 am and 230 am and currently lay centred over south Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh about 90 km north to northwest of Visakhapatnam and 120 km east of MalkangiriIt is likely to move westnorthwestwards across south Odisha and south Chhattisgarh to weaken into a wellmarked lowpressure area during the next 24 hours the official said in a press releaseSeveral places in Andhra Pradesh are expected to receive rainfall including heavy rainfall in some placesParts of Srikakulam Vijayanagaram Parvatipuram Manyam Alluri Sitarama Raju Kakinada and Nandyala districts are likely to receive heavy rainfall said an official releaseLight showers are predicted at some places in Visakhapatnam Anakapalli Konaseema East Godavari West Godavari and other districts along with some places in the Rayalaseema regionAlerting people living in lowlying areas Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority managing director R Kurmandh said the first level warning has been issued at Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada as the Krishna river is in spate following heavy inflowsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever