VIJAYAWADA: With heavy rains lashing Krishna district for the past few days, the sanctum sanctorum of renowned Sri Subrahmanyeswara Swamy Temple in Mopidevi village of Avanigadda mandal was inundated on Tuesday.
Water engulfed the entire temple premises, keeping the authorities on tenterhooks. The temple priests said that they have decided to stop performing special rituals like Mahanyasa Purvaka Rudra Abishekham until the situation returns to normal.
To avoid causing inconvenience to devotees, the temple staff have swung into action and are flushing out floodwater from the premises. In all, Krishna district received 1097.9 mm rainfall since Monday due to cyclonic depression in the Bay of Bengal. Nagayalanka mandal received the highest rainfall (84.2 mm ) and the lowest- 0.2 mm was recorded in Tiruvuru and Jaggayyapet mandals.
Interestingly, the district received 22 mm rainfall per hour on an average since Monday. Apart from that, 68.6 mm rainfall was recorded at Challapalli mandal, followed by Ghantasala (68.2 mm), Machilipatnam (52.6), Movva (51.2) and Avanigadda (48.6). The Vijayawada Urban and Rural mandals received around 30.4 mm rainfall causing severe inconvenience to the residents. In Avanigadda, the Mandal Revenue Office (MRO) was inundated due to heavy rains, forcing the officials to wade through floodwater to reach work.
Meanwhile, Collector A Md Imtiaz has directed the officials concerned to stay alert as there are chances of heavy to very heavy rains in the next three days. Due to cyclone depression in the Bay of Bengal, he sought the officials to alert the fishermen to stay away from the sea as strong winds are likely to blow.
Instructions have also been given to the officials concerned, to shift people residing in low-lying areas to rehabilitation centres and make arrangements to provide food and medical services to the displaced persons.
A special control room has also been set up at the District Collectorate in Machilipatnam to provide held and special information regarding the cyclone to the public. "For further assistance, citizens can call control rooms in Machilipatnam at the following numbers: 08672-252752, divisional revenue office- 08672-252486 and the Vijayawada sub-collector’s office 0866-2574454," Imtiaz said.