GUNTUR: Fear still lingers in the eyes of Sk Mastanvali of Reddigudem village in Guntur district, which got submerged when banks of Yedduvagu flooded the entire region last Thursday.
"If not for the breach in railway bridge, the entire village would have been wiped out and I would not be here to recount the nightmare," he said.
Though the breached railway bridge and washed away railway track are expected to be restored in a week to ten days, it will take years before Mastanvali and others in the village overcome the ordeal.
Mastanvali and his friend Sk Janvali, who were at the breached railway bridge to lend a helping hand in track restoration works on Sunday, said on that day, it looked like they were doomed.
“Though we climbed roofs of our homes with families, we lost hope. It was breach at the railway bridge that saved us. It just took one hour for the entire flood to recede, saving our village,” they recalled.
Now it is turn of the locals to chip in to restore the bridge that saved their lives and they are doing it without any complaints. The village is now limping back to normalcy, with road connectivity restored on Sunday morning and power connectivity restored partially by noon.
For three days, there was no power and roads were cut off.
“People from Ganapavaram and other villages had supplied food and water to us. When we were in trouble, it was they how came to our rescue, not the statement issuing elders of the government,” said Janvali, who owns a farm near the breached railway bridge.
With train loads of rock and material being dumped at the site, railway employees with the help of locals are working day and night to restore the railway track, which got breached at several places between Sattenapalle and Reddigudem.
“It was breached at 11 places in a stretch of six kilometers from the outskirts of Dhulipala to Reddigudem,” a higher official of South Central Railway from Hyderabad supervising the restoration works told Express. Pointing out at the 800 meter long, 8 meters deep crater formed due to erosion of soil due to flooding, which resulted in the railway track getting washed away in that part, he said if there are no further rains, it will take about a week for the track to get restored. Earth movers and dumpers are working non stop to restore the track.
“We have never witnessed such a devastation in the last four decades. It is the first time I realised, how destructive water can be. The farms between the railway track and the highway suffered damage,” P Badri, a farmer from Dhulipala village in Sattenapalle mandal said.