Floods: Home Minister Anitha Puts Eight Districts on High Alert

Vijayawada: Minister for Home and Disaster Management, Anitha Vangalapudi, has put the administrations in eight districts on high alert, asking the collectors there to take urgent action in the rain and flood-affected areas.

A Yellow alert has already been sounded in Alluri Sitarama Raju district due to rains and floods.

The minister held a review meeting on rains and inspected the AP Emergency Alert Centre on Friday. Heavy rains have flooded many areas in the last two days following a depression in the Bay of Bengal.

Anitha said special teams should be in readiness for relief works.

According to IMD estimates, due to the influence of southwest monsoon and depression, more than normal rainfall is likely to be recorded in AP. So, special attention should be paid to the low-lying areas. She suggested appropriate steps by examining the flood flow at the field level in the Godavari and Krishna Rivers’ catchment districts.

Explaining the situation, she said 12 districts have recorded maximum rainfall this month, 9 districts high rainfall and 5 districts normal rainfall. The highest rainfall of 184 mm was at Gudem Kothaveedhi of Alluri Sitarama Raju district.

“The condition of ponds and streams in river catchment areas, where floods occur frequently, should be checked from time to time and officials remain vigilant about the rains and floods in the upper reaches.”

The minister reviewed the situation through a video conference with collectors and DROs from the affected districts. She said flood water was entering the Godavari, Vamsdhara, Nagavali and other rivers through the rivulets due to the rains and storms in these rivers’ catchment areas.

Alluri Sitarama Raju collector Dinesh Kumar said the rains continued in the district for a week. In the wake of the rains and typhoon warnings, VRO, VRA and other officials in the Devipatnam River basin have been alerted and they have taken preemptive steps.

Steps have been taken to restore the damaged roads and a grievance cell was set up for relief. The DROs of the BR Ambedkar and Srikakulam districts have been alerted in the wake of heavy rains.

Director of the state disaster management department Ronanki Kurmanath asked the officials to track the conditions of rains and floods in the upper areas like Nasik and Bhadrachalam and tahsildars should be more vigilant in the flood-affected areas like the Gotta Barrage.

Officials told the minister at the state emergency operations centre about the 24/7 weather monitoring system and the provision to send alerts to the public before calamities occur.