Heavy rain lashed all the 66 mandals in Chittoor district on Thursday, recording a rainfall of 2,218.8 mm. Tirupati Urban mandal received 88.8 mm rainfall, the highest in the district, while Gudupalle mandal received the least (8.2 mm) by Thursday morning.
The district adminsitration has put the officials on high alert for the next 20 hours in view of the forecast that the well-marked low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal off north Tamil Nadu-south Andhra Pradesh coasts with an associated cyclonic circulation is likely to intensify into a depression in the next 12 hours.
Under the influence of the weather system, Chittoor, Madanapalle, and Tirupati revenue divisions saw heavy downpur from 10 a.m. which continued till the late evening.
Traffic comes to halt
Vehicular traffic on the busy Tirupati-Kadapa highway came to a halt for several hours, with water overflowing on to the roads at several places including Balapalle and Kukkaladoddi on the Chittoor-Kadapa border.
The police rushed to the spot and cleared the traffic. The motorists have been warned to avoid crossing the overflowing causeways.
According to information, the Bahuda River in Madanapalle division was in spate owing to heavy inflows from the upper reaches of Karnataka.
The irrigation officials lifted the gates of the Krishnapuram reservoir near Karveti Nagaram and the Araniyar project at Pitchatur and released water into the streams that flows towards Tamil Nadu. They also alerted their counterparts in the neighbouring State.
The district administration arranged tom-tom to caution the people living in the low-lying areas in Madanapalle division to immediately move into rehabilitation centres.
The areas in the limts of the Chittoor Municipal Corporation saw a downpour from Thursday morning. The Neeva River was in spate and heavy inflows were recorded at the NTR Jalasayam.
The officials said that the water level at the reservoir was under constant watch and gates would be lifted if needed.
Normal life was thrown out of gear in Chittoor as the residential areas near the Neeva riverbed were inundated. Municipal Commissioner P. Viswanath inspected the low-lying areas and instructed the officials to constantly monitor the situation and take appropriate steps to evacuate the people from affected areas. Heavy inflows were also reported at the Araniyar project and the Kalangi reservoir.
Holiday declared
Collector M. Hari Narayanan told the media that teams of NDRF and SDRF were deployed in Chittoor district. He said that Thursday and Friday had been declared holidays for all educational institutions.
According to information, the neighboring Kadapa district also received heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours. A precipitation of 661.2 mm was recorded in Jammalamadugu, Kadapa and Rajampeta divisions between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
