Rain wreaks havoc in AP districts

Water world: Thirteen dead; crops and roads damaged

Nellore, Chitoor and Kadapa bore the brunt of the rain that wreaked havoc in the three districts, killing 13 people and causing damage to crops and roads.

Rain abated on Wednesday and flood water receded in many parts of the districts, bringing some relief to people.

Sixty-one camps function in Nellore district and 6000 have been shifted from low-lying areas.

AP Transport Minister  Sidda Raghava Rao is camping in Nellore while three IAS officers  have been overseeing relief work in Gudur, Atmakuru and Naidupet divisions in the district that are worst hit by the rain.

District administrations are bracing for more disaster as the weather department has forecast rain for further 24 hours.

Rain pounded the three divisions since early Wednesday morning, throwing normal life out of gear there. Nellore received 12 cm rain and Balaipalli 15 cm in the last 24 hours.

Swarnamukhi, Kaivalya and Kalangi rivers are in spate as heavy rain continued in the catchment areas. Somasila reservoir is almost full with 32 tmc feet of water.

District authorities are working against time to repair the 3 breached parts of the Kolkata-Chennai national highway near Manubolu due to overflowing Pambaleru, a seasonal rivulet. Officials hope to finish the repair work and allow traffic to resume by Thursday morning.

Floods and severe inundation paralysed traffic between Tirupati-Venkatagiri, Srikalahasti-Naidupet, Venkatagiri-Gudur, and Gudur-Rapolu.

The bridge linking Sangem and Kaligiri has considerably weakened and is in the danger of collapsing any time. Traffic on the route has been diverted.

Amidst severe floods engulfing Nellore town and its suburbs, residents of Gudur –submerged since Tuesday morning—are demanding food and drinking water.

Rescue teams found more troubles as communications of all modes broke down completely in the wake of the pounding.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who reviewed the situation with the district officials on a video conference call from Vijayawada, made an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Nellore and Chitoor, but his inspection was cut short due to inclement weather.

Naidu asked the district administration on full preparation as rain is expected for the next few days.

South Central Railway either cancelled or rescheduled several trains on Wednesday due to overflowing water on bridge number 167 between Tada and Sullurpet stations on Gudur – Chennai section, bank slip between Yellakaru and Venkatagiri stations & Vendodu - Kondagunta stations and derailment between Nandalur-Mantapampalli on Guntakal division.