Retaining wall collapses in Vizag, residents evacuated

Visakhapatnam:Incessant rains due to a well-marked low pressure in the Bay of Bengal led to the collapse of a house’s retaining wall in Peda Gantyada housing board colony in Gajuwaka area here on Friday.

Continuous drizzle drenched the districts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram and ASR for the second day, throwing normal life out of gear.

GVMC commissioner Sampat Kumar rushed to the spot along with other officials and advised immediate shifting of the residents of the locality to safer places. They were taken to a temporary shelter and provided food, drinking water and other essentials.

The GVMC and revenue officials alerted the residents living on hill-tops, low lying areas and in old buildings. A house had collapsed in Gajuwaka during the July rains. Though there was no loss of life or injuries in both the incidents, the people were terrorized and fled their homes.

About 2.5 lakh people are living on the hill top houses in different areas of the city.

The high tide caused by low pressure also demolished the wall of the park located at RK Beach.

Meanwhile, the well-marked low pressure area over west central and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal intensified into a depression and was moving in northeast direction as a ‘deep depression’ off the AP coast. It is likely to weaken but would cause rain to north coastal AP on Saturday, the weather office said.

Mentada (Vizianagaram district) received the highest rainfall of 5.5cm on Friday, followed by Bondapalle 4.8, Nellimarla 4.4, Gantyada 4.3 (all in Vizianagaram district), Salur (Parvathipuram Manyam) 4.3, Kalingapatnam (Srikakulam) 4.2, and Vizianagaram town 4cm. Visakhapatnam city received 3cm rainfall.