Godavari river is flowing above third danger mark of 53 ft at Bhadrachalam in Khammam district, necessitating the officials to be in a state of alert to evacuate people in villages likely to be inundated, to safer places.
The river was flowing at a level of 47.3 ft on Tuesday which gradually rose to 53.3 ft on Wednesday. The flow was 14.6 lakh cusecs as against 11.6 lakh cusecs on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the toll due to rains rose to 19 with one person being washed away in Sirpur. Five persons were injured in Warangal due to collapse of wall.
At Dowleswaram in East Godavari district, the water level has begun to recede but it is expected that it would go up once again as the discharge at Bhadrachalam was quite high. On Tuesday, the water level at Dowleswaram was 14.7 ft as against 16 ft on Tuesday. The discharge was 14.72 lakh cusecs on Wednesday while it was 16.53 lakh cusecs on Tuesday.
The river is very close to danger level of 11 metres at Eturunagaram in Warangal. The water level was at 10.44 metres as against 9.8 metres on Tuesday. Penganga, a tributary of Godavari, is also rising. It was flowing at a level of 12.9 metres as against the danger level of 15 metres. As the water levels are increasing, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the officials to continue relief measures in the flood-affected areas.
The total rainfall received from June 1 till Wednesday was 338.8 mm as against normal rainfall of 256.5 mm which is 30 per cent excess. Highest rainfall of 53.4 mm was recorded in Adilabad. Bzar Hatnoor in Adilabad district recorded 155 mm rainfall. Five mandals in Adilabad recorded more than 100 mm rainfall and 17 mandals more than 50 mm.