Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool   

Tungabhadra in spate

Staff Reporter

People in villages along the river course caught unawares

FLASH FLOODS: Tungabhadra river crosses danger mark at Kurnool on Saturday.

KURNOOL: The Tungabhadra river received flash flood on Saturday peaking the discharge to 2.29 lakhs at Sunkesula barrage, 20 km upstream of Kurnool city. The river flowed above the danger level at Mantrayalam and started easing late in the evening.

According to reports, the heavy rain in the last two days in Adoni division, Bellary and Raichur in Karnataka contributed heavy flood to the river. Around noon, the river flowed at 6.230 metres as against the danger level of six metres (312 metres mean sea level).

Sudden rise

The Sunkesula barrage downstream Mantrayalam discharged 2.29 lakh cusecs in the evening. The flow in the river, which was only 24,000 cusecs in the morning rose suddenly by after noon. The inflow into the Tungabhadra dam at Hospet in Karanataka was only 12,061 cusecs and there was no discharge into the river.

The flash flood caught the residents of villages along the river course in Kurnool and Mahabub Nagar district unawares. The floodwater is likely to inundate low-lying areas in Kurnool city. In-charge Collector Ramsankar Naik put the revenue staff on alert to evacuate the people in the city in case of necessity.

Mr. Naik told The Hindu that revenue staff were instructed to caution people in low-lying areas through public address system. He said the peak flood would remain only for five to six hours. Meanwhile, crops along the river course were submerged in hundreds of acres in both districts. However, the damage might not be more because of submergence for a short while.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Rain wreaks havoc in Kurnool
Tungabhadra in spate

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu