Heavy rains; Vizag becomes a safe refuge to nearly 10,000 families

An aerial survey of the flood hit parts of Andhra Pradesh was conducted today by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu in order to inspect the damage caused to crops and railways tracks. Up to five people were killed due to the heavy rains on September 22nd, meanwhile nearly 10,000 families were moved to Zilla Parishad, municipal schools and other safer places in Visakhapatnam. As of Monday evening, 408 houses in various parts of the district were partially or fully damaged, said the Collector. Over 3,430 hectares of land located in 101 villages in 33 mandals of Visakhapatnam district was affected due to heavy rains in the last two days.

Balaji Nagar and Relliveedhi in Chodavaram, ASR Colony in Yellamanchili and Geddapadu in S. Rayavaram were amongst the places that faced damage due to continuous downpour. According to District Collector Pravin Kumar, most of the flood was in the downstream areas of various reservoirs such as Raiwada and Thandava in the district.

“Among the reservoirs, Raiwada received the maximum amount of inflows and an outflow of 3,500 cusecs is being maintained to avoid breach. In the case of other reservoirs inflows are not heavy and a cushion of at least half-a-metre below the danger mark is being maintained by judiciously flowing out the excess water,” said District Collector of Visakhapatnam. He also assured that about 10 relief camps were set up in the affected areas. Furthermore, the District administrations were put on high alert; over 1,000 sandbags and cement bags were provided to the vulnerable areas.

“Officers have been dispatched to all mandals and mini command control centres are opened in various areas to cater to four to five mandals. The idea is to have a real-time picture of the flood situation. All Tashildars, horticulture officers, VROs and MPDOs have been told to report to their stations,” he said.