Heavy rain forecast puts officials on high alert

With heavy rain forecast in several parts of the district on Monday and Tuesday, the administration and the police were put on high alert on Sunday, especially in the areas where major causeways overflowed and bridges collapsed during the rains that battered the district on November 18 and 19.

The areas vulnerable were located in Kadiri, Dharmavaram, and Hindupur Assembly constituencies.

Superintendent of Police Fakkeerappa Kaginelli said police personnel controlled the movement of vehicles in the vulnerable stretches and advised people against taking risk in crossing the rivulets or causeways. The municipal authorities too were cautioning people against living in old buildings.

Kadiri Revenue Divisional Officer K. Venkata Reddy told The Hindu that they had vacated people residing in mud houses in the urban areas and shifted them to the shelters.

‘We are keeping a watch on the inflows into Vithalarayanacheruvu and Maddileru in Kadiri, which is already overflowing following inflows from Karnataka,’ he said.

‘If there are heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday in Gandlapenta, Gorantla, Nallacheruvu, several villages will be inundated as all the tanks downstream are also full and overflowing,’ he said.

‘At present, there is only slight drizzle. We are in touch with the officials in Gorantla and Chilamathur, and with officials in Bagepalli in Karnataka to assess the outflows from tanks and dams there,’ Mr. Venkata Reddy said.

Veldurthy, where 10 persons had been rescued by a IAF helicopter last week, is the focal area. The situation in Sainagar in Puttaparthi, where 500 houses were damaged last week following inundation, was also being monitored.