First flood warning at Prakasam Barrage, 4.2 L cusecs outflows in Andhra Pradesh
VIJAYAWADA: High alert has been sounded in the low-lying areas along the Krishna river in NTR, Krishna, Guntur, Palnadu, and Bapatla districts, with heavy inflows into the river from upstream. The first flood warning was issued at Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada on Friday morning after flood flow in Krishna touched four lakh cusecs.
At 3 pm on Friday, surplus water at a discharge rate of 4.23 lakh cusecs was released downstream of the barrage to sea.
“We have advised the district administrations to alert the official machinery in the low-lying areas along the river course in view of increasing flood levels. We expect the trend to continue for another two days and in case of heavy rains upstream, the inflows might increase further,” Water Resources department Superintending Engineer (Vijayawada) S Tirumala Rao told TNIE.
Krishna district collector P Ranjit Basha, who took stock of the flood situation through teleconference, said flood levels have increased from 3.97 lakh cusecs to 4.2 lakh cusecs since morning and is expected to increase further.
He directed the officials in the district to be on duty on Saturday and Sunday, though they are holidays, in view of the flood situation and forecast for heavy rains for the next two days. Officials were instructed to ready sandbags and other flood relief material as a precautionary measure. Further, they were directed to identify pucca buildings to be used as relief camps.
On the other hand, people in all the mandals along the river in Krishna, Guntur, Palnadu, Bapatla and NTR districts were advised to move to safer locations in case of a further increase in flood levels. They were advised not to cross water bodies and flooded roads, culverts and bridges.
Control rooms have been opened at the Krishna district collectorate at Machilipatnam (08672-252572), at the Vuyuru RDO office (9849231336) and Machilipatnam RDO office (9849903962). According to irrigation department officials, with copious inflows from upstream, both Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects are brimming with water.
As of Friday at 3 pm, the outflows from the Srisailam project were 4.53 lakh cusecs, while it was 3.93 lakh cusecs at the Nagarjuna Sagar project. At the Pulichintala project, the outflow was 4.24 lakh cusecs.
Penna river in spate
The high alert continues in the areas along the course of the Penna River and other rivers in the Rayalaseema region, which are in spate following heavy inflows from upstream in Karnataka, which has been receiving heavy rains for the past week. B
By Friday evening, Somasila reservoir was receiving inflows of 37,000 cuescs and the outflow was 50,000 cusecs.
As against full reservoir level of 77.988 TMC, present levels stand at 71.85 TMC.
Vedavathi, Hagari rivers that flow through Kurnool and Anantapur districts continue to be in spate. In Kadapa, officials alerted people downstream of the Mylavaram project, as the flood water was being released following copious inflows. Alert has been issued at Gandikota, CBR and other projects in the district.
Meanwhile, rivers, streams and ponds are brimming with water in Parvathipuram Manyam district, which received heavy rains for the last two days under the impact of a low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal.
Several villages in Pachipenta Mandal lost connectivity with the Mandal headquarters as Kura Gedda is in spate near Tatteduvalasa village. The residents of Tatteduvalasa village are crossing the Kura Gedda with the help of ropes in a dangerous manner.