AP Rains: Heavy rains in Satyasai district; Chitravati in spate

ANANTAPUR: Heavy rains hit many parts of Satya Sai and Anantapur districts since Sunday and inundated the low-lying areas.

With heavy rains in upstream parts of Karnataka, in Pennar basin in Chikkaballapur district, the Chitravati river was in spate. The Paragodu reservoir in Gowribidanur taluk of Karnataka located closer to AP border was overflowing.

A blast occurred at the gelatin sticks godown on the outskirts of Untakal village in Bommanahal mandal in Anantapur district on Monday. This was believed to have been caused by lightning in the course of rains.

At least 5,000 gelatine sticks caught fire, causing cracks for houses in nearby village Untakal. For safety considerations, the godown existed in the fields away from the village. No casualty was reported as there were no labourers in the godown. The gelaine sticks had been purchased from a licenced unit in Nalgonda district, officials said after preliminary investigations.

The Paragodu water was released into the river towards Chilamathur mandal as Chitravati floods submerged causeways and roads towards Puttaparthi. Revenue and irrigation authorities of AP and Karnataka sounded an alert to the inhabitants of Chitravati riverbed following the floods.

Teams of officials were monitoring the situation at Gorantala and Puttaparthi where Chitravati river flows closer to urban areas and villages. Last year, Chitravati water was flowing at dangerously high levels in Puttaparthi.

The government hospital at Madakasira was inundated and floodwater entered the hospital wards due to heavy flow from nearby hillock areas. The low-lying areas were submerged. Water entered shops and houses too in several areas.

Many colonies in Hindupur municipality were submerged after the irrigation canals were overflowing and water entered residential areas late on Sunday.

Amarapuram mandal recorded 164.2mm rainfall in a day. Penukonda town received 98.4mm followed by Madakasira 88.2mm and Hindupur town 74.8 mm. In addition to the flow of water from upstream Karnataka areas, the heavy rains locally too resulted in inundation of many habitations.

Hindupur municipal vice chairman Balarami Reddy along with civic authorities led rescue efforts in Model Colony area where the entire colony was full with rainwater and the roads were under more than 4ft of water.

Average rainfall in Satya Sai district was 37mm but a heavy rainfall of 1183mm was recorded on Sunday. Rain continued in many areas on Monday.

At least eight mandals received more than 50mm rainfall while 12 mandals 20-50mm and 10 mandals below 20mm. The rainfall was 266.2mm on Saturday.