AP: Two major rivers in spate as inflows from upper catchment areas continue

The two major rivers, Godavari and Krishna, in Andhra Pradesh remained in spate on Sunday with copious inflows from the upper catchment areas.

Two teams of National Disaster Response Force and three of State Disaster Response Force have been deployed for rescue and relief operations in vulnerable areas in East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh as the flood flow in river Godavari increased to over 10 lakh cusecs on Sunday evening.

In the Devipatnam mandal, more than 30 villages remained marooned and road communication was cut off because of the flood.

The first warning signal has been raised at the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowaleswaram near Rajamahendravaram as a flood of 10,11,382 cusecs was recorded, State Disaster Management Commissioner K Kanna Babu said.

All the flood water was being discharged into the sea.

He, however, said the severity of the flood was expected to reduce by Monday.

In a release, Kanna Babu asked people living along the Godavari course to remain vigilant.

He said NDRF and SDRF teams have been deployed in Kunavaram, Chintoor and V R Puram in East Godavari and Jangareddygudem and K R Puram in West Godavari for emergency operations in view of the flood.

The Disaster Management Commissioner asked people not to venture into the river in boats and steamers.

Meanwhile, East Godavari district officials said the tributaries of Godavari, like Vainateya, Vasishtha, Gautami and Vruddha Gautami were also in spate in the Konaseema region.

Accordingly, people residing in the vulnerable villages along the course were being evacuated to safer places.

In river Krishna, the Srisailam reservoir received an inflow of 4.5 lakh cusecs by Sunday evening.

Water level touched 863.7 feet against the full reservoir level of 885 ft, with a storage of 117.77 tmc ft of water.

As power generation was continuing in the Left Bank powerhouse, 31,000 cusecs of water was being discharged from Srisailam.PTI DBV SS PTI PTI