Incessant rain puts Godavari districts under flood scare

Rajahmundry: The mighty Godavari is in spate for the second time in a month, cutting road link to about 100 villages in East Godavari district.
In West Godavari, 19 villages in Polavaram mandal are badly hit. Water level in these villages is likely to go up by about two metres.
The water level in the river has been steadily increasing thanks to heavy inflows from the upstream following incessant rain in the catchment area.
About 11 lakh cusecs of flood water is discharged into the sea from the Arthur Cotton Barrage across the Godavari at Dhowlaiswaram near Rajahmundry.
The state government has put the administration in East and West Godavari districts on high alert as further inflows are expected in the next few days. The Krishna river is also in spate with flood water released from Karnataka. All the dams across the river are receiving heavy inflows. Flood warning has been sounded in villages on the river bank.
In East Godavari district, about 100 villages remained cut off from the main land as water is overflowing in to roads. The road to Chintoor is also flooded and communication links to interior villages have been snapped.
A second danger warning is likely to be issued on Monday morning as the water level is gradually increasing at Bhadrachalam. The irrigation authorities said that the discharge level may reach 16 lakh cusecs which will ring danger bells in Agency mandals as well as in Konaseema. According to irrigation superintending engineer Krishna Rao, about 100 villages are cut off.
The situation in four Agency mandals in East Godavari that were merged with AP is precarious. About 35 villages are cut off from the main land as water is flowing on to main roads. The National Highway-216 connecting Andhra Pradesh and Odisha has been cut off. Flood water is overflowing on Kunavaram-Bhadrachalam main road and Chintoor-VR Puram main road, disconnecting several villages.
The situation remains grim in about 45 villages of Devipatnam mandal as these villages are cut off. Five villages are inundated and the Integrated Tribal Development Agency authorities have opened relief centres.
The situation may turn worse in the next three or four days as flood level is likely to rise. Rampachodavaram ITDA project officer O Nishanth Kumar said that ration has been supplied already to those villages which are cut off. He said most of the people have not come to relief centres in the cut off villages and about 1,000 people whose houses are submerged are taking shelter at high points and in temples.
In Konaseema, people are in the grip of fear as flood is likely to rise further. Several ‘Lanka’ (island) villages are cut off and water is entering some villages through overflowing causeways.

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