: Most parts of the Nellore district narrowly escaped from fury unleashed by the very severe cyclone Vardah on Monday as the highway and train traffic was badly hit between Gudur and Chennai city in view of the grave impact in the border areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Several trains came to a halt at Sullurupeta, Tada and Gudur following the cyclone situation. Officials expected the traffic to be restored by evening.
At Sriharikota space centre, nine Tamil fishermen were rescued by expert swimmers with the help of boats while rescue operations were still on for rescuing eight more fishermen. These fishermen ventured into the sea three days back and got caught in the rough seas eventually.
The district officials shifted 30 persons to a relief camp at Kotakatla in Sullurupeta mandal following rainwater logging in the area.
General life was thrown out of gear as heavy rains have hit villages and coast-side habitations in Sullurupeta, Tada, Vakadu, Kota, Nayudupeta and other far southern areas in the district.
Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana, District Collector R. Mutyala Raju and other officials monitored the cyclone situation from the collectorate in Nellore. Senior IAS officer B. Sreedhar, who is special officer for Vardah cyclone relief operations, made a visit to Sullurupeta and Tada areas to oversee relief operations there. He was accompanied by Joint Collector A.Md. Intiaz.
The heavy rains came as a breather at a time when there was hardly any rainfall during this December throughout the district.
The rainfall under the impact of cyclone was 36 mm at Vakadu, 24 mm at Chittamur, 23 mm at Tada and 7.4 mm at Nellore. There has been no rainfall recorded in upland areas like Udayagiri and Sitaramapuram.
The officials said that two special teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) swung into relief operations in Tada area and Nayudupeta areas.
Regional Fire Officer D. Murali Mohan said that nearly 303 staff of the fire services department were deployed in the cyclone vulnerable areas along with 100 volunteers.
