As heavy rains continued in its catchment areas, the swollen Godavari flowed perilously above the danger mark of 53 feet at Bhadrachalam on Monday evening necessitating evacuation of people living in various riverside villages and other flood prone areas located along the Godavari river course in seven Agency mandals to relief camps.
Following copious inflows from upstream, the Godavari swelled rapidly at Bhadrachalam as it crossed the first flood warning level of 43 ft around Sunday midnight, second warning level of 48 ft at 6 a.m. on Monday and third warning level of 53 ft at 4 p.m. later in the day.
The authorities issued the first, second and third warnings within a span of just 16 hours and deployed the sectoral officers in the flood-prone areas and initiated flood contingency measures as per the flood manual.
Police monitoring the evacuation of residents of riverside villages to relief camps in Bhadradri Kothagudem district on Monday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
As many as 336 persons belonging to 44 families from the flood-prone/affected villages in Charla, Dummugudem and elsewhere in the district were moved to as many as 30 relief camps set up in Bhadrachalam town and various other parts of the Agency mandals late on Monday afternoon.
Pregnant women
Around 32 pregnant women from the far-flung tribal habitations were shifted to the nearby primary health centres (PHCs) in view of the flood threat as the Godavari and all its tributaries are in spate in the tribal majority district.
Flood water from the swollen streams submerged various stretches of the Bhadrachalam-Charla highway cutting off the road link between Bhadrachalam and Mulugu district’s Venkatapuram mandal, sources said.
The TSRTC suspended all its bus services between Bhadrachalam-Parnashala and Bhadrachalam-Charla on the Venkatapuram route.
People evacuated
In a swift action, police teams led by Superintendent of Police G. Vineeth evacuated around 100 villagers of Sunnambatti, a flood affected village in Dummugudem mandal, to the nearby relief camps on Monday afternoon.
The local police used country boats to shift the inhabitants of the riverside village, surrounded by flood water, to safer places, sources added.
The bathing ghats on the banks of the Godavari in Bhadrachalam were submerged and flood water encircled the Vista shopping complex and various other low-lying areas in the temple town.
NDRF teams
High capacity pump sets were pressed into service to drain out the flood water from the Vista complex area. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are camping at the flood-prone areas to tackle any exigency.
Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar along with Collector D. Anudeep reviewed the flood contingency measures in the temple town late in the afternoon.
Flood control rooms have been set up and the flood related incidents if any can be passed on phone numbers — 08744 241950 and 08743 232444 as well as the WhatsApp helpline number 9392919743.
