Heavy rain disupts normal life

Residents sitting outside as rain water entrered their houses in Bhagyanagar in Ongole on Friday. Photo: Kommuri Srinivas

Normal life was disrupted in Ongole and other parts of Prakasam district as heavy rain continued to lash the district for the third consecutive day on Friday, under the influence of a low pressure area developed in the Bay of Bengal.

Vehicular traffic between Ongole and Chirala was suspended as Gundalakamma river was in spate. The traffic between Ongole and Kothapatnam was disrupted as Nallavagu flooded the low-level causeway.

Meanwhile, irrigation authorities stepped up outflow from 13,700 cusecs in the morning to 18,500 cusecs from Obul Reddy Gundalakamma reservoir, anticipating that inflows would to go up to 25,000 cusecs by night. Water entered several houses in low-lying areas including Bhagyanagar, Housing Board Colony and Pragathi Colony.

Ongole received 13.8 cm rainfall in the last 24 hours, weathermen said. Several rivulets including Chilakaleru in Mundlamuru, Dornapuvagu in Talluru and Nallavagu in Addanki were 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.

Municipal workers swung into action to free the clogged drains, facilitating faster disposal of rainwater to Potharaju canal as the rains had left many roads submerged. Meanwhile, the Meteorology Department had predicted more rain in the next 24 hours.

With the north-east monsoon remaining active, farmers are hoping to take up rabi farm operation in full swing after drought in all the 56 mandals in the district dashed their hopes of decent returns in kharif. “The rain will be beneficial to cotton, red gram, and chillies,” Agriculture Joint Director J. Muralikrishna said.

Prakasam district received an average rainfall of 40.3 mm in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on Friday with Maddipadu recording the highest of 180.2 mm followed by S.N.Padu (149.4mm), 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).