Flood threat to AP, Telangana

Hyderabad: Heavy rains continued to lash both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the third day on Monday, raising fears of floods in some parts of the two States. High alert has been sounded in vulnerable areas by the Khammam district administration as the Godavari river touched the 41 feet mark at Bhadrachalam following copious inflows from its tributaries in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

In a statement, the Bhadrachalam Revenue Divisional officer R Anjaiah alerted the people living in the river bank villages that there is every possibility of a rise in the Godavari water level due to incessant rains in catchment areas. He directed all the officers in the revenue division to make themselves available in their respective headquarters.

Since 5 pm on Monday, the water level in Godavari remained stable at 41 feet mark at the temple town. The first danger signal will be sounded if the water level reaches 43 feet mark. Meanwhile, the road connectivity remained disrupted to 35 villages in Wazedu mandal due to overflowing of Cheekupalli Vagu.

The vehicular traffic on the NH-30 has also been affected due to overflowing of several streams and damaged roads due to water-logging. In Andhra Pradesh, the Irrigation Department officials released 6.10 lakh cusecs of water into the sea from Sir Arthur Cotton barrage as the flood water level has been increased to 8 feet at the barrage.

All the 175 crest gates have been lifted completely.The officials are forecasting that more water may reach the barrage by Tuesday as the water level at Bhadrachalam has reached 41 feet on Monday. Sugunakar Rao , Superintending Engineer, Irrigation explained that the first warning would be issued only after water reaching 48 feet in Bhadrachalam and 11.75 feet at Sir Arthur Cotton barrage.

Meanwhile, several villages in Chintur, Vara Ramachandra Puram, Devipatnam, Koonavaram and Yetapaka mandals remained marooned. The ITDA has taken up medical and rehabilitation camps in these areas. Boats and emergency teams have kept in preparedness to face any situation.

The clearing of roads with the help R&B department is still going on. People living in the marooned areas of these mandals have been evacuated. Staff of the Primary Health Centres has been directed to stay in the affected villages to ensure that diseases do not break out

The efforts are on to bring back nearly 120 fishermen in sixteen boats who had ventured into the Bay of Bengal on June 17, East Godavari District Collector Arun Kumar said on Monday. "Of the total 31 boats, 15 boats have returned so far. Search is going on to trace another 16 boats. The Coast Guard is conducting search operation in 200 nautical miles area.

According to him, so far 90 fishermen have returned and search is on to trace another 120 fishermen in the 16 boats which have not returned. According to a press release issued by the AP government, it has deployed three helicopters and two Coast Guard ships to undertake search operations to find the fishermen. However one of the fishermen died in the hospital.