The Godavari and the Krishna are in spate in the State following heavy rains in their respective catchment areas.
A peak of 14.49 lakh cusecs was discharged from the Godavari in the early of Saturday at the Sri Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram, downstream Rajamahendravaram, in East Godavari district.
The authorities sounded “second warning” after the water level at the barrage crossed the 13.75 feet in the early hours. The water level went right up to 14.2 feet and then gradually fell to 13.7 ft. by evening. The discharge too fell to 12.72 lakh cusecs, making the authorities withdraw the second warning at 6 p.m. On the Krishna, the Srisailam reservoir, which receives water from both the main river and Tungabhadra, the tributary, saw all the action. The reservoir, which has a flood cushion of less than 5 tmcft, received an inflow of over 3.5 lakh cusecs through most of the day.
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Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao was at the dam supervising the lifting of four radial gates to release over two lakh cusecs downstream, to the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir in the morning.
As the inflows crossed 3.5 lakh cusecs in the evening, the authorities opened two more gates.
As the flood in the Godavari peaked, water entered a few villages on the banks of the river both in East and West Godavari districts.
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Water entered over two dozen low-lying villages in Devipatnam mandal of East Godavari district.
With several lanka (island) villages in East and West Godavari districts getting marooned by the rising flood waters, people who had standing crop and livestock were put to inconvenience.
People living in Ainavilli, a lanka village, had to depend on country boats when the causeway that connects it to the mainland got submerged in the floodwaters.
There was no access to Ayodhyalanka, Puchchalanka, Rayilanka, Marrilanka and Bheemalapuruam in Achanta mandal of West Godavari district.
Similarly, there was no access to Edurubedam, G. Peedapudi, K. Enugupallilanka, Sivailanka, and Kajvelu in East Godavari district.
The plight of people turned worse as the authorities regulated the movement of country boats with the increase in flood.
Relief camps
Authorities in East Godavari opened seven relief camps to accommodate several families being evacuated from the low-lying areas. Over 1,000 people evacuated from villages in the early hours were accommodated in these camps.
The 3.5 lakh cusecs that was discharged from the Srisailam reservoir is, however, welcome as the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir has a flood cushion of 144 tmcft.