Incessant rains in the Godavari basin over the past three days led to sharp rise in water level in the Godavari at Bhadrachalam, prompting the authorities to issue the first flood warning for the temple town and other flood prone areas in the tribal majority Bhadradri Kothagudem district on Monday afternoon.
The rain swollen river crossed the first flood warning level of 43 feet at 3.15 p.m. on Monday and inched closer towards the second flood warning level of 48 feet late in the evening, sources said.
After witnessing successive floods in different spells earlier this monsoon season, the Bhadrachalam Agency is once again staring at a flood-like situation with the Godavari and its tributaries are in spate.
The water flow in the river rose sharply from 7,81,614 lakh cusecs at 8 a.m. to 10,36,818 cusecs at 7 p.m. on Monday due to heavy inflows aided by discharge of floodwaters from all the major irrigation projects in the upstream areas. The Godavari rose to its second highest flood level of 71.30 feet at Bhadrachalam on July 16 this year.
Control rooms
Two control rooms one (08744 241950) at the Collectorate in Kothagudem and another (08743 232444) at the sub-Collector’s Office in Bhadrachalam have already been set up to meet any exigency.
Allapalli mandal in Bhadradri Kothagudem district recorded an unprecedented 35.1 cm rainfall in 24 hours from 8 a.m. on Saturday to 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Several other mandals in the district and elsewhere in Rajanna Sircilla, Nirmal, Mancherial and several other districts received heavy rainfall, considered to be highest in a single-day for September in recent years.
An approach road of a bridge across a local stream near Chennur in Mancherial district was washed away and a causeway was damaged at Andavelli village in Kagaznagar mandal of Kumaram Bheem Asifabad district under the impact of heavy downpour.
Cotton and other crops in hundreds of acres were submerged under a sheet of rainwater in several mandals of Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Mulugu and various other districts.
