The city woke up to a fresh threat of flood on Sunday when the district administration put on alert all the people living on the river bed and the flood bank, saying 5.5 lakh cusecs of water would be discharged from Prakasam Barrage between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The alert was issued on the basis of a general understanding that the 5 lakh cusecs and above released from Nagarjuna Sagar on Saturday evening would reach the barrage in about 24 hours. However, the discharge from the barrage did not go beyond 3.86 lakh cusecs, which was the maximum recorded at 2 p.m., and did not show any significant increase till late evening.
At 9 p.m., the level of water in the barrage stood at 11.2 ft., with inflow at 3.72 lakh cusecs and outflow at 3.58 lakh cusecs.
Irrigation authorities said that a good amount of the flood discharged from Nagarjuna Sagar was “absorbed” by the river in between, and, hence, all the 5 lakh cusecs and above did not reach the barrage.
Krishna district Collector Peeyush Kumar, who addressed a press conference at noon, cautioned the people residing in low-lying areas of the city and said they were being shifted to the relief camps. “The relief camps will continue for at least three more days and the enumeration will begin only after normalcy is restored completely,” he said.
It was estimated that about 14,000 people living in Tarakarama Nagar, Bhupesh Gupta Nagar, Ramalingeswara Nagar, Metla Bazar and Bhavanipuram would be affected by the flood. He said there would be no damage to the ‘karakatta’ due to the series of floods. “We are taking up the strengthening of karakatta simultaneously. This flood will not affect the strength of the karakatta,” he said.
Mr. Peeyush Kumar allayed the apprehensions of many people that enumeration would be over if they did not return home.
The fresh evacuation, which began at 11.30 a.m., reached a peak by 6.30 p.m., and the rescue teams could evacuate about 3,950 people living from Krishnalanka Metla Bazaar to Bhavanighat, who were shifted to various rehabilitation centres.
The officials estimated the total number of people to be evacuated as 52,230. As already there were about 9,000 people in the camps as the flood waters did not recede completely, the total number of evacuees would be around 13,000.
