A spell of rains on Sunday brought misery to Nellore which is yet to recover from the flood fury, even as an inter-Ministerial Central team extensively toured the district to assess the damages the rains caused last week.
Briefing the Central team members about the trail of destruction the heavy rains had left and the unprecedented floods in the Penna river following a record inflows of 5.56 lakh cusecs of water causing inundation in the mandals of Anantasagaram, Atmakur, Buchireddypalem, Chejerla, Indukurpeta, Kalavoya, Kovur, Nellore, Sangam and Vidavaluru, District Collector K.V.N.Chakradhar Babu put the destruction caused by the recent floods at ₹1190.15 crore.
The irrigation infrastructure suffered a damage to the tune of ₹756.93 crore, followed by roads in rural areas ₹335.73 crore. Central team members—Anil Kumar Singh, Shrewan Kumar Singh, Abhay Kumar, Kunal Satyarthi, K. Manohar, Shivan Sharma—noted that the destruction caused by the floods triggered by the depression that crossed the coast near Chennai on November 19, was akin to the one caused by a cyclonic storm. They promised to recommend for a liberal Central assistance on receiving a report from the State government.
The Central team expressed satisfaction over the relief operations undertaken by the district administration, which moved over 30,000 people to more than 100 relief camps.
Crop loss
The Collector explained that 5,835 persons were rescued on a single day following the breach to Kovur tank. “Nellore bore the brunt of the flood fury, resulting in evacuation of 23,140 persons. Crops in 14,265.70 hectares including horticultural crops in 2,481.70 hectares were damaged in the district.
Meanwhile, the rivulets and water tanks in the district were in spate, following the unabated downpour since Saturday. Residents of colonies on the outskirts of Atmakur town staged a protest as flood waters entered their houses.
Balayapalli recorded a a maximum rainfall of 18.2 cm, followed by Chilakur (13.6 cm) and Gudur (12.6 cm). The low-lying areas in Nellore city, including Jayalalitha Nagar, Janardhan Reddy Colony and Bhagat Singh Colony were inundated following the rain.
Maintaining a flood cushion of 9.93 tmcft, the irrigation officials released 53,578 cusecs of water from the Somasila reservoir, which recorded an inflow of 44,604 cusecs on Sunday. The project suffered a damage of ₹195.01 core last week.
