The Handri river is in spate owing to heavy rains that lashed several parts of Kurnool district on Monday night.
Six shepherds, who tried to save some sheep from being washed away in the swollen river near Remaduru village in Kallur mandal, were caught in the gushing water on Tuesday, but were rescued. Sunkanna, Sudhakar, Kantha Rao, Linganna, Ranganna and Thimmanna were rescued by the police and the local people with the help of a boat.
Heavy rainfall was recorded in Kurnool, Krishnagiri, Dhone, Veldurthi, Mantralayam, Kosigi and other mandals in the district on Monday night. The Handri and Vakkeravagu are in spate and rain water entered some houses in Ashoknagar, Geeta Nagar, Mubarak Nagar and some other low-lying areas in Kurnool town. The river water gushed with force at Joharapuram. The roads near the Anand Cine Complex, Budhawarapet, Krishnanagar and Santoshnagar turned into water pools affecting flow of vehicular traffic.
Collector’s directive
Collector S. Satyanarayana inspected a bridge near the Anand Cine Complex. He told revenue and municipal officials to alert the people of low-lying areas through public address systems and instructed Kurnool RDO Hussain Saheb to shift them to safer places like colleges and schools, if necessary.
He told the medical and health officials to take steps to check spread of contagious diseases.
Mr. Satyanarayana told Superintending Engineer of Irrigation J. Chandrasekhara Rao to monitor the inflows into tanks and rivulets and take steps to avert breaches.
The Gajuladinne project has a storage of four tmcft as against its capacity of 4.50 tmcft, the Collector told the media. The Gajuladinne and the Pandikona reservoirs were likely to be filled soon, he added.
Paddy crop damaged
Meanwhile, heavy rain in Owk mandal led to inundation of Kulukuntla, Mettupalli, Annavaram and Ramapuram SC Colony. Water entered the primary school in Gundlasingavaram village. The stone slab mines were filled with water and some electric poles were uprooted due to rain and gales. Paddy crop was submerged in some fields.
Some streams in Kumbalanuru, Marali and Dommaladinne villages in Kowthalam mandal were swollen cutting off approach to about 20 villages.
Krishnagiri mandal received the highest rainfall of 126.2 mm, Devanakonda 107.8 mm, Veldurthy 105.2 mm, Nandikotkur 97 mm and Kurnool 90.8 mm, Yemmiganur 89.6 mm, Peddakabadur 86.2 mm and Kodumur 82.6 mm.
