The Bhadrachalam Agency is facing a renewed threat of floods as the Godavari after receding below the first warning level on Wednesday night, swelled rapidly on Thursday by crossing the first (43 feet) and second (48 feet) warning levels in a span of just little over 12 hours before inching closer to the danger mark (53 feet) at Bhadrachalam town.
This has prompted the official machinery to bolster its emergency response mechanism in the flood prone areas by deploying 46 boats, 100 swimmers equipped with life jackets along the Godavari in seven Agency mandals.
At 8 p.m., the Godavari touched 52.20 feet, almost the third danger mark, carrying 13.79 lakh cusecs of flood waters from upstream.
As the weather forecast indicated further rise in the water level in the Godavari on account of the incessant rains in its catchment areas, the entire official machinery has been put on high alert to deal with any flood exigency.
The Taliperu reservoir in Telangana’s border mandal of Charla continued to receive copious inflows from its Chhattisgarh-based catchment areas pushing up water level in the Godavari. As many as 25 crest gates of the medium irrigation project were raised to let out the excess water from the reservoir filled to the brim.
The bridge across the Kinnerasani at Nagaram in Palvancha mandal was closed to vehicular traffic on Thursday evening after the river swelled alarmingly threatening to breach the approach road of the bridge, sources said.
Collector M. V. Reddy visited the flood affected areas in Manuguru town where rain waters entered into several houses in Sundaraiahnagar causing severe hardships to the denizens of the coal town.
Meanwhile, adequate number of motor pumps and sand bags were arranged at the flooded Vista complex area surrounding the flood bank along the Godavari river in Bhadrachalam. The backwaters of the Godavari inundated the low-lying areas in the temple town after the Godavari almost touched the danger mark at 8 p.m.
The authorities have made arrangements to ensure all amenities in the relief camps where several families facing the threat of flooding were shifted.
