With several rivers in spate following heavy rains, road connectivity from Andhra Pradesh to the neighbouring States of Odisha and Chhattisgarh was cut off on July 27 (Thursday).
As a result, movement of vehicular traffic and people came to a grinding halt at the tri-State border, at Chintoor in Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district.
The Sabari river, which originates in Chhattisgarh, and the Sileru, which flows from Odisha’s Malkangiri region, are in spate.
Meanwhile, the floods in the Godavari river touched the second warning level at Bhadrachalam in Telangana.
The Chintoor-Konta highway on the Chhattisgarh border and the Chintoor-Chatti road on the Odisha border were under a sheet of water.
Vehicles carrying passengers and goods from Chhattisgarh and Odisha need to pass through the Chintoor tri-State border to enter Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“As on date, 10,835 families have been evacuated from the 93 flood-hit habitations (48 in Kunavaram mandal alone) in the Chintoor Agency. The evacuation operation is still in progress,” Chittoor in-charge Sub-Collector Suraj Ganore told The Hindu.
With the Sokileru stream too in the spate, road link was cut off to dozens of Koya tribal habitations on the Chintoor-V.R. Puram route.
Rescue personnel deployed
In Eluru district, at least 750 families were evacuated from the Velerupadu and Kukunuru areas. In all, 75 disaster response personnel had been deployed in these areas to take up relief operations.
“The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel will also be deployed for undertaking relief and evacuation operations as the flood level is rising in the Godavari at Bhadrachalam,” Eluru Joint Collector B. Lavanya Veni said.
“We have already deployed sufficient number of boats for transportation and evacuation operations,” she added.
The medical and health teams had already been deployed in the cut-off habitations, and they were expected to stay put there for one more week.
Evacuation from islands
As many as 25 islands were cut off from the mainland, and the evacuation operation in these areas was in progress.
“We have completed patrolling of the 370-km-long Godavari river bund in Konaseema district and identified 32 vulnerable points, which have been strengthened on a temporary basis,” said Konaseema district Collector Himanshu Shukla.
“We are gearing up to tackle the situation should the third flood warning be issued. The first flood warning is in force at the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram,” Mr. Shukla said.
Relief centres
Decentralised relief centres had been opened in all the 25 islands. A team of officials would reside in each of the islands for one week to tackle the situation. At least 120 boats were deployed in the flood-hit areas.
With the second warning sounded at Bhadrachalam and the first warning at Dowleswaram, the officials were advised to be alert for taking up evacuation of people in the Godavari region in Andhra Pradesh.
