Cyclone threat looms large, 22 killed in heavy rains
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HYDERABAD (Andhra Pradesh): Cyclone threat looms large over the state while heavy rain continued to pound the coastal areas on Tuesday killing 22 persons and damaging crops in thousands of acres. Coastal districts are on the edge as heavy rain in the past four days has left a trail of destruction.
Though the rains stopped for some time on Tuesday afternoon, weathermen forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions in the next 24 hours. "The cyclone threat to the coastal areas persists with the depression centred in the sea near Thailand. It is likely to intensify into a cyclone and hit south coastal Andhra or Tamil Nadu coast," a Met official said.
Standing crops, particularly paddy, in 2.73 lakh hectares (ha) and horticulture crops in 4,289 ha have been destroyed.
Anguished over the loss, an aqua farmer committed suicide in East Godavari district on Tuesday. Akula Suribabu, 50, an aqua farmer of Challapalli village in Uppalaguptam mandal, consumed pesticide after he suffered heavy losses when his aqua tanks in 10 acres were destroyed in rains.
In all 228 mandals in five coastal districts were badly hit and over 26,000 marooned people were evacuated to safer places. Over 5,378 houses were completely damaged, while at least 31,392 houses were submerged in the incessant rains.
Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts accounted for six deaths each, followed by Nellore, Prakasam, Chittoor, West Godavari and Anantapur (2 each).
Train traffic was hit on the Kottavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line after huge boulders fell on the tracks at Sivalingapuram-Borra caves near Araku in the early hours. Also, vehicular traffic was affected for over four hours on the second ghat road in Tirumala when boulders started rolling down from the hilltop.
Several trains on Vijayawada-Chennai route were running late by three to five hours as the track between Ulavapadu-Singarayakonda was under sheets of flood waters. Two passenger trains between Vijayawada and Gudur were cancelled, while several other trains were diverted.
The overflowing Mutteru rivulet breached at Pakala village near Ulavapadu submerging railway tracks. Ulavapadu recorded the highest rainfall of 28 cm, followed by Singarayakonda (24 cm), Kadiri (15 cm) and Kandukur 14 cm.
Sources said the loss to the crops in East Godavari, considered the rice bowl of AP, could be around Rs 500 crore. Forty irrigation canals and tanks developed breaches and three important roads were washed away in the waters. In West Godavari, paddy crop in 90,000 acres was damaged. Tobacco grown in the northern light soils also suffered extensive damage.
(the time of india)
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