Krishna in grip of Helen

Vijayawada: The entire Krishna district is under cyclone purview, and especially, farming community is facing worse crop loss threat by the Helen cyclone.

According to revenue officials, the present Helen cyclone affect will cover the entire Krishna district. Even as cyclone may hit the coast at Machilipatnam or any other place in Guntur or Prakasam districts, the impact is likely to be in every part of Krishna district also.

Officials of Krishna district led by collector conducted a series of meetings on Thursday for taking precautionary steps. As per warnings of the metrology department, sea coast mandals of Machili-patnam and Kruttivennu may be affected seriously by the Helen cyclone which was 190 kilometres away from here on Thursday.

The officials also predicted that the speed gales with 100 KMPH would hit the coast and several parts of the district. Nearly 14 lakh acres of paddy crop is in the harvesting stage and it may be damaged severely.

The officials of Krishna district have taken several steps to curtail the damage. The officials provided necessary arrangements in 127 cyclone shelters against the total of 181 shelters.

Moreover, officials have converted several school buildings into cyclone shelters and also provided  lifeboats, life jackets along with seven medical teams. The officials arranged special control rooms and also special teams to monitor the cyclone.

Revenue minister N. Raghuveera Reddy and chief secretary P.K. Mohanty conducted a video-conference with the officials of the Krishna district and warned that cyclone may hit the coast at Machilipatnam. They instructed the officials to provide control rooms across  all the mandals in the district.

Krishna district collector M. Raghunandan Rao said that the administration was making arrangements to shift the people from low-lying areas. Ration, generators and other road-clearing machinery was kept ready to face the situation.

The government has allocated special funds for taking precautionary steps. On the other hand, the district admi-nistration instructed the doctors of the primary health centres to stay back in the night as they will be allocated respective villages and suggested the people to postpone journeys. Fishermen were also warned not venture into the sea.