Tirupati: People living in Tirupati and its suburbs, especially in a few villages along the Swarnamukhi river are in distress. The deluge continued to inundate several low-lying areas flooding thousands of houses and damaging properties.
Damaged roads have cut off traffic from Tirupati to many places including Ramachandrapuram, Sanambatla, Pudi and a few routes leading to Chittoor and Madanapalle. The vehicular traffic on the national highway between Chittoor and Chennai was moving slowly as the Ponnai bridge was overflowing. Many other rural roads also reported damage.
Low-lying areas along Neeva river, Chittoor city and its rural pockets, Srikalahasti and other eastern mandals are also in a pitiable condition. While non-stop flow of water from Tirumala hill ranges into the water bodies and lakes in Tirupati led to flooding at several areas in the city yet again on Saturday, the flood situation in some rural parts worsened further with the Peruru Cheruvu (tank) and Perumallapalli Cheruvu overflowing with flood waters inundating several low-lying colonies.
The non-stop downpour under the influence of a series of depressions in the Bay of Bengal over the past few days has battered the temple city and almost all parts of Chittoor district triggering flash floods in several areas.
However, even as rains receded and a few areas were recovering, many parts of Tirupati and its suburbs including Chandragiri and Srikalahasti mandals are still reeling under the flood impact.
The flood situation continued to be grim in several areas in Tirupati, including Madhura Nagar, Leela Mahal Junction, Thataiahgunta, Karakambadi Road, Akkarampalli, Vaikunta Puram, Bairagipatteda, Gandhi Puram, Shivajyothi Nagar, Mangalam, Gayatri Nagar, SK Nagar, M.R. Palle, etc. People living in these areas were in despair. They are deprived of basic essentials and drinking water and the electricity is yet to be restored.
The civic authorities of Tirupati and the Chittoor district administration are yet to find a solution to divert the floodwaters from inundating the low-lying areas in the city, and many villages across the district. There are certain complaints that the district administration is failing to come to the rescue of the people in Tirupati, and a few other affected villages in its rural parts and some towns across the district.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that nearly 40,000 people remain confined to their houses in Tirupati city as flood waters entered their homes and streets and there seems to be no way the flood waters will recede in the next 3-4 days. District Collector M. Hari Narayana, Tirupati municipal commissioner P.S. Girisha and Tirupati MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy and Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy convened a meeting to discuss measures about diverting flood waters into canals.
