Date:07/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080753230300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Flood close to second warning level

Staff Reporter

Residents alerted to the threat

18 launches kept ready for relief, says Sub-Collector
Tanks develop breaches

BHADRACHALAM: The flood level in the Godavari will touch 49 feet at the temple town by midnight of Wednesday. The second warning would be issued as soon as the flood level touches 48 feet. There was a slow increase in the water level in the river in the day.

The CWC official here said that the flood level would remain steady for some time after crossing the second warning level and start receding on Thursday. The residents of the villages in the low-lying areas were alerted by organizing tom-tom or by using the mikes.

Bhdrachalam Sub-Collector M. Janaki , in an official release issued here, said that all precautions were taken to meet the flood situation. Some 18 launches were kept stand-by for rescue and relief operations. Essential commodities were moved to vulnerable areas well in advance.

Some 25 villages in Wajeedu mandal were cut off from rest of the district as the Chikupalli vagu was in spate following heavy rains in the catchment since Tuesday. There was some letup in the flood flow of Sabari and other minor tributaries of the Godavari in Khammam.

District revenue officer Ramesh Babu said the flood and rains claimed lives of two persons in the district. They were identified as Kanti Bojji, 45, of Togugudem village in Palvancha plavancha mandal and Joga Narsaiaha, 54, of Rayapadu village, a hamlet of Anantogu in Gundala mandal.

A three-year-old boy, Adapa Narasimha Rao, was reported dead in Tumburur village of Sathupalli mandal, but the exact cause of the death was yet to be ascertained. Two more tanks -- Nallamudu check dam in Mulakalapalli mandal and a panchayti raj tank at Lingapuram in charla mandal -- developed breaches.