Heavy rains lash coastal districts

Thunderstorms with heavy rains likely in north coastal dists & Rayalaseema on Wednesday
A youngster enjoying at RK Beach during rains in Vizag on Tuesday | G Satyanarayana
A youngster enjoying at RK Beach during rains in Vizag on Tuesday | G Satyanarayana

VIJAYAWADA: Though the low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal off the North Andhra coast has become less marked, heavy rains continued to batter north coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, parts of Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts and Anantapur in Rayalaseema region. Other districts in the State also received light to moderate rains. 

With copious inflows continuing in River Godavari from upper catchment areas, water level is steadily increasing at Polavaram project and Dowleswaram Barrage. At Polavaram upper cofferdam, water level touched 28 metre on Tuesday. At Dowleswaram, 56,000 cusecs of floodwater was released downstream into sea. 

Polavaram superintendent engineer Narasimha Murthy said with incessant rains in the upper catchment areas of the river in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana, they expect the flood levels to increase further in the coming two to three days. With huge inflows reaching from Sabari, Pranahitha, Indravati and  Wainganga and other tributaries in the upper stream areas, rate of inflows at Polavaram project is increasing 

Flood levels at Dowleswaram barrage stood at 10.65 feet, Kunavaram 7.73 metre, and old railway bridge in Rajamahendravaram at 13.92 metre. A first level warning will be sounded at Dowleswaram Barrage, once the water level crosses 11.75 feet, he said. East and West Godavari district administrations are closely monitoring the situation and disaster management teams are on standby to evacuate people from low lying areas, if the flood levels reach danger levels.

The IMD forecast said low-pressure area over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts has become less marked. However, with active south west monsoon, north coastal districts are receiving incessant rains. The IMD issued a warning of thunderstorms and lightning with heavy rainfall in north coastal districts and Rayalaseema on Wednesday. 

According to APSDPS, the highest rainfall of 8.8 cm was registered on Tuesday night at Tekkali in Srikakulam district, followed by 8.6 cm in Gara of the district. Etcherla and Ranasthalam of the district registered 6.3 cm of rain.  

In the last 24 hours ending Tuesday morning, the highest rainfall of 15.3 cm was registered in Rowthulapudi in East Godavari district, followed by Chagallu of West Godavari with 12.9 cm, Jeelugumilli of the same district with 11.1 cm, Kadiyam of East Godavari district with 10.6 cm, Rajamahendravaram of the same district with 9.9 cm, Koyyuru of Visakhapatnam with 9.5 cm, Kovuru of West Godavari district with 8.2 cm. Several places across the State reported rainfall between 1-5 cm.

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