Cyclone Nivar rips apart villages in Andhra Pradesh

Nellore: Cyclone Nivar has thrown life out of gear in Nellore and Chittoor districts, apart from other districts in the Rayalaseema region. Under the influence of the Cyclone, heavy downpour associated with gale winds uprooted as many as 800 electric poles and 100 odd trees across Nellore district. As a result, scores of villages and some towns plunged into darkness, and traffic movement was affected due to the fallen trees.

Traffic on the National Highway No 16 that connects Chennai and Kolkata was affected, and vehicles were stranded for over eight km in view of water overflowed from the Pambaleru stream bet-ween Gudur and Manubolu. Although the movement of two-wheelers and autorickshaws was restricted to allow the traffic of cars and heavy vehicles, they moved at a snail pace. A diversion road constructed on the highway, where the road had breached during heavy rains witnessed in 2015, to build a new bridge led to water stagnation and overflow on the road.

Similarly, traffic came to a grinding halt between Rapur and Venkatagiri following the collapse of a bridge on NH 565 at Lingasamudram village.

Links between several villages in Venkatagiri, Nellore rural, Gudur, Naidupeta, Sullurpeta, Ozili and several coastal areas were cut-off due to the overflow of water from rivulets, canals and tanks on the roads in 16 places.

Heavy inflows of 80,000 cusecs (cubic foot per second) from the Penna upstream forced authorities to release one lakh cusecs of water from the Somasila reservoir.

A breach to the Kanupur Canal at South Mopur near Nellore led to the flooding of nearby habitations and agricultural lands. In Sydapuram Mandal, Kaivalya Vagu overflowed, causing problems to commuters on the Gudur road.

Around 20 passengers travelling in an RTC bus from Gudur to Rapur had a harrowing experience when the bus got stuck between two streams near Tikkavarappadu Cross Road on Thursday night. NDRF teams rushed to the spot with a  boat and launched an operation to shift the passengers to safety.

In the Atmakur segment, links were cut-off between Padamatanaidupalli village and the national highway as Kethemanneru vagu was in spate. In Marripadu Mandal, Boggeru Vagu was also on spate, disconnecting transport links between many villages. Connectivity between Chejarla and Mamuduru was severed due to overflowing floodwater from the Gollapalli tank.

In Sullurpet, Vatrapalem was inundated with floodwater and the local population spent sleepless nights. In Nellore city, many areas were inundated and remain without power.

SP Bhaskar Bhushan visited Jayalalitha Nagar where four houses were collapsed after a tree fell on them and distributed essentials to the victims. Netaji Nagar, Vengal Rao Nagar, and many others faced rain havoc. Even posh areas like Magunta Layout also witnessed power outages.

In Chittoor district, the Tirupati urban police along with fire personnel rescued two young farmers — Venkatesh and Ramesh, both 21-year-old — using a speed boat when they were caught in the floodwaters of the Mallemadugu reservoir near Kummarapalli village of Yerpedu mandal. They were returning to the village after retrieving their motor pumps. Efforts are on to save the third victim, Prasad.

Tirumala-bound devotees had a miraculous escape when a boulder fell on the edge of their vehicle near 14th km on the ghat road leading to Tirumala on Thursday due to the impact of very severe cyclonic storm Nivar.

TTD vigilance and engineering wing staff swung into action and cleared the boulder, before shifting the devotees to Tirumala. As an act of precaution, TTD has decided to close down Srivari Mettu footpath route for two days owing to huge rocks falling on the footpath.

 The cyclone has also disrupted normal life in East and West Godavari districts, which received moderate to heavy rains throughout the day accompanied by very chilli winds.

The cargo operations have stopped in Anchorage Port at Kakinada for the past two days due to large waves and chilli winds.