Vijayawada: Even as the water level in River Krishna, Budameru rivulet and other streams started receding, several areas in Vijayawada were still reeling under the impact of floods for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.
The state government’s report on the heavy rains and floods in the state said nearly 6.44 people have been hit. The authorities set up 193 relief camps and accommodated 42,707 people in NTR, Guntur, Krishna, Eluru, Palnadu, Bapatla and Prakasam districts so far.
A total of 48 NDRF and SDRF teams have been pressed into service while six choppers -- two from Navy and four from the Air Force -- have been airdropping food items and airlifting the stranded people from inundated areas. As many as 228 boats have been deployed to evacuate the people to safety while 315 swimmers were engaged along with boats for rescue operations.
The APSRTC has arranged 167 buses for transporting passengers from surrounding railway stations to Vijayawada and for other relief operations. The railways cancelled 328 trains, diverted 174 trains and partially cancelled 12 trains due to incessant rains in Vijayawada.
Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and several ministers oversaw rescue and relief operations by reaching out to the affected people. Some ministers waded through knee-deep water while others drove the vehicles through the flood-hit areas. Some ministers sat on top of the vehicles as they went around inspecting the flooded areas.
Naidu climbed atop an earth-mover to reach out to the flood-hit people as he moved around areas like Sitara Centre, Kabela Centre, Vambay Colony, Ambapuram, Kandrika etc. His convoy of vehicles was unable to reach some places due to inundation.
He travelled on the earthmover for nearly a 22km distance for four-and-half hours.
The chief minister interacted with the affected people and asked them whether they were getting the food supplies on time. Meanwhile, choppers from the Navy and Air Force delivered drinking water packs, biscuits, food items and medicines to the affected people.
Agriculture minister K Atchannaidu visited Ajith Singh Nagar, YSR Colony, Raja Rajeswari Peta etc, along with three tractor loads of food packets and water bottles. Minister BC Janardhan Reddy drove a tractor through the flood-hit areas and delivered food packets to the affected people at Kandrika-Payakapuram.
Ministers Gottipati Ravikumar and Anagani Satyaprasad visited rehabilitation centres at Panumudi village of Repalle mandal in Bapatla district. Minister Kolusu Parthasarathi visited the flood- hit areas in Krishna Lanka and other areas. He travelled in a boat to deliver food and water to the people at Kotinagar of Division 15.
Minister Payyavula Keshav said that after two days of floods in Vijayawada, some areas were getting relief as floodwaters started receding and the people were getting back to normal activities. Minister Savitha waded through knee-deep water to reach out to the people in Divisions 54, 55 and 56. She delivered food and milk packets and water packs door-to-door.
Minister P Narayana noted that Vijayawada never witnessed heavy rainfall and floods to Krishna river and to streams causing such severe hardships in the last 200 years. “With coordinated work, we were able to bring down the number of casualties,” he claimed.
Ministers Kandula Durgesh, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and others visited Maitri Nagar, Jayaprakash Nagar, Kreesthu Rajapuram etc to take part in the relief works.
