VISAKHAPATNAM: Heavy rainfall in parts of North Andhra disrupted normal life. With a number of streams overflowing, many interior tribal villages and hamlets have lost connection with the mandal headquarters. A number of villages in Araku, Paderu, Munchingput, Chintapalle, Dumbriguda and a few others have been receiving very heavy rainfall. A few areas have been witnessing continuous rain from Friday night. Overflowing streams in the Agency has created panic among locals. A bridge at Lingalaputti area of Paderu has swept away with rain disconnecting about 30 interior villages.
Meanwhile, the streams at Kudumusari and Cheruveedhi in Chintapalle mandal are overflowing. Paderu MLA Gidde Eswari checked the flow at Lingalaputti and asked the ITDA officials to take measures immediately. The impact of rain is severe in Srikakulam compared to the other two North Andhra districts. Due to heavy rain in upper catchment areas of Vamsadhara river in Odisha, irrigation officials of Srikakulam district were forced to lift all the 22 gates of Gotta barrage up to 0.5 metre on Vamsadhara river at Hiramandalam on Saturday.
When the gates were lifted, the outflow at Gotta barrage had rose to 31,366 cusecs while the inflow was 23,930 cusecs as at 4 pm. Of the 38.10 metres of full reservoir level at Gotta barrage, the water level reached 36.56 m by Saturday evening. While 92.60 mm of rainfall was recorded at Gotta, it was 60.97 mm of average rainfall in the upper catchment area of Vamsadhara rriver in the limits of Odisha. The highest rainfall of 90.8 mm was recorded at Gunupur, followed by Kasinagar which recorded 76 mm and Gudari with 61.80 mm. While the inflow at the Totapalli barrage on Saturday evening reached 22,800 cusecs, the outflow was 30,835 cusecs.
With the increased flood levels of Sunamudigedda, a stream of Mahendratanaya river, an under- construction road breached between VGR Puram and Kuntikota villages. The connection between Pataptanam and Kapu Gopalapuram has been disrupted with the flood water overflowing on the roads.
District administrations of the three districts alerted public over low pressure warning. Fishermen were also directed to stay off the sea and rivers.