Normal life was affected in the city and other parts of Prakasam district as heavy rain continued for the third day on Friday under the influence of a low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal, for the third day on Friday.
Vehicular traffic was suspended between Ongole and Chirala as irrigation authorities let out 13,700 cusecs downstream from the Obul Reddy Gundalakamma reservoir, flooding the Madiralapadu causeway. The traffic between Ongole and Kothapatnam was also affected as Nallavagu was in spate.
''Though minor rivulets are in spate, there is no threat of breaches to any of the 952 tanks, including 363 minor irrigation tanks in the district'', Irrigation Superintending Engineer D.Koteswara Rao said.
Water entered some houses in the lowlying areas including Bhagyanagar, Housing Board colony, Pragathi colony, Maruthinagar, Sriram colony and Nehrunagar as Ongole received 13.8 cm rainfall in the last 24 hours.
Municipal workers swung into action to free clogged drains facilitate faster disposal of rainwater to the Potharaju canal as many roads were submerged in a sheet of water.
Meanwhile, weatherman predicted more rain in the next 24 hours.
With the north-east monsoon turning active, farmers are hoping to take up cultivation in full swing during Rabi season after drought in all the 56 mandals dashed their hopes of good return during Khariff season.
''The rain is beneficial to standing crop, including cotton, redgram, and chillies,” Agriculture Joint Director J.Muralikrishna said.
Prakasam district received an average rainfall of 40.3 mm in the 24 hours ending at 0800 hrs with Maddipadu recording a very high rainfall of 180.2 mm followed by S.N.Padu(149.4mm), Ongole(138.8mm),Tangutur(133.4 mm), Jarugumalli (105.4 mm), Kothapatnam (102.8 mm), Singarayakonda(96.8mm), N.G.Padu(96.4), Talluru(90.2 mm), Chimakurthy(84.2 mm) and Kandukur (68.8 mm).
