Flood threat looms over Srikakulam, Vizianagaram

Srikakulam/Vizianagaram: The threat of floods looms over the agency areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts in the Uttarandhra region on Friday with the rivers and streams receiving heavy inflows from the catchment areas in the Eastern Ghats. Vamsadhara, Nagavali and Champavati rivers were in spate.

A dilapidated school building at Reddivanivalasa in Vizianagaram district collapsed following heavy rains. There were no casualties, however, as the incident occurred after the school hours. Gadasan and Porali villages in the agency of Vizianagaram district remained cut-off as a bridge connecting the two villages was flooded by a groin.

The Vizianagaram district administration was forced to cancel an army recruitment rally scheduled to have been conducted today due to heavy rains. Rajiv Indoor stadium, the venue of the recruitment rally, became a pool of rain waters, rendering itself redundant for the programme.

The dejected hundreds of candidates who gathered from six coastal districts in hope of getting placements in the army returned home after cancellation of the rally. It was scheduled to have been held for 10 days up to October 16 from Friday.

Paddy, sugarcane fields and the horticulture crops such as papaya and banana were submerged in villages such as Kailam and Iddanavalasa due to the flooding of Champavathi river. The primary schools in the villages of Relligudem, Malledivalasa, Aguru were closed following flood alert.

Srikakulam district collector K.Dhanunjaya Reddy took stock of the flood situation at a teleconference with the officials representing different departments.

The collector asked the Irrigation department officials to strengthen the embankments of the groins and canals at vulnerable places and avert breaches.

The officials of the Irrigation department were instructed to work in coordination with revenue and police departments to maintain vigil on all the irrigation tanks in Palasa and Ichchapuram Assembly segments in the next two days.

The personnel of the municipal, medical, electricity and other related departments were asked to be prepared to handle the situation. Weather forecasts from the Visakhapatnam Met centre suggested heavy rains in the next 12 hours, indicating a grim situation to prevail for another two days. Ichachapuram and Palasa received 10cm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.