Andhra Pradesh faces brunt of Cyclone Nivar

Nellore: Nellore district is witnessing heavy rainfall coupled with huge gale winds from the early hours on Wednesday as the Cyclone Nivar headed towards Tamil Nadu. All coastal mandals in the district are facing a difficult situation where trees are getting uprooted in the areas close to the sea. Many areas in the city were inundated with floodwaters and mandals close to Chennai such as Sullurpet, Tada, DV Satram, Naidupet, and others are witnessing extreme heavy falls.

The district on average witnessed 6 cm of rainfall. Kota received 15 cm; Vakadu 13.5 cm; Naidupet, Chittmuru and Kodavaluru received 12 cm; Kovur, Muthukuru and Vidavaluru mandals received 11 cm of rainfall till 6 pm on Wednesday, according to officials. District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu, Joint Collector Dr N Prabhakar Reddy, Telugu Ganga Special Collector SV Nageswara Rao, and others are visiting places for shifting people from low-lying areas to safer places.Heavy rains coupled with cold breezes started in the early hours. District administration arranged helpline 1077 at the District Emergency Operations Centre for receiving round-the-clock cyclone related grievances from the people.

Around 100 people from the NDRF and SDRF have been deployed at various coastal mandals for managing any untoward incidents. Services of 9th battalion located at Venkatagiri would also be utilized in addition to the disaster relief teams.

The District Collector engaged Special Officers for vulnerable coastal mandals for monitoring the cyclone mitigation activities. Fire, medical and health, agriculture, police, irrigation, and revenue wings have been put on alert for swinging into action whenever necessary. Further, the District Collector announced holidays for educational institutions in the district for three days from 25 to 27 in view of the cyclone. Nellore Municipal Corporation arranged a command control centre at its office for round-the-clock services.

The toll-free number is 1800 425 1113 and the helpline number is 0861-2355350 and the city population can contact the numbers. Further, in an accident at Bhagatsingh Colony in Venkateswara Puram area in the afternoon a driver died on the spot when two vehicles collided. Two trucks moving in the opposite direction met with an accident due to poor visibility. The driver of a vehicle died on the spot. Traffic CI Ram Nayak rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the hospital for treatment. Further, Minister Anil Kumar is visiting various places in the town to observe the rainfall situation. Many areas in Nellore and other mandals have been facing power outages due to uprooting of trees. Transco officials are monitoring the situation for restoring power.