The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Nine persons killed in heavy rain, floods

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Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Nine persons killed in heavy rain, floods

Special Correspondent

Floods caused by release of water from Kadem irrigation project in Adilabad district

Rayapatnam bridge linking Karimnagar, Adilabad inundated
Chennur in Adilabad receives 21 cm rain, highest in the State

— Photo: S. Rambabu

LURKING DANGER: The Godavari river in spate at Pushkar Ghat in Rajahmundry on Monday.

HYDERABAD/KARIMNAGAR: Heavy rain caused by a depression in the Bay of Bengal and flooding of rivers and streams claimed the lives of nine persons besides damaging properties and crops in different parts of the State on Monday.

Four of them were killed in Kakinada, three in Karimnagar and two in Adilabad. In Karimnagar, three persons including a nine-year-old boy were drowned in the swirling waters of river Godavari following the sudden flash floods at Jaina village about 9 km from Dharmapuri temple town.

Durgam Laxmi (40), her son Durgam Raju (9) and P. Laxmi (35) went into the Godavari for a holy dip on Monday, the auspicious day of the Shravan month.

They were taking bath on the shore of the river when flash floods washed them away.

The flash floods were caused by release of water from Kadem irrigation project in neighbouring Adilabad district. Though project officials announced release of about 50,000 cusecs of water, they were forced to release over 2.8 lakh cusecs of water into the river Godavari following the heavy inflows.

Timely intervention

The casualties would have been high, as several hundreds of devotees were bathing in the ghat, but for timely intervention by the Dharmapuri police in alerting and evacuating them.

On the other hand, the Rayapatnam bridge connecting Karimnagar and Adilabad districts on the river Godavari was inundated, with the flood waters disrupting the traffic flow.

Many rivulets and hill-streams that join the Godavari below the Sriramsagar project were in spate as a result of heavy rains in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts.

As the monsoon turned “vigorous” under the influence of the low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal off the North Andhra and the South Orissa coast, Chennur in Adilabad received a very heavy rainfall of 21 cm, the highest recorded by any place in the State on a single day during the season so far. Many places in Coastal Andhra and Telangana experienced downpour. Adilabad and Kaleswaram recorded 19 cm each, Perur 14 cm and Bobbili 7 cm.

Srisailam

B. S. N. Reddy, engineer-in-chief, Irrigation, said Srisailam was likely to get its first instalment of inflows of the season in a week as Almatti and Narayanpur were poised to attain their full reservoir levels.

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