Godavari flood situation grim in Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada: With the Godavari river in spate, the flood waters wreaked havoc in six districts in Andhra Pradesh and more than 170 villages are under water while crops in thousands of hectares are damaged.

According to officials here on Saturday, the Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR), Eluru, West Godavari, East Godavari, Konaseema and Kakinada districts are badly affected as several villages are cut-off due to flood waters and as many as 628 villages in 44 mandals in the six districts are in the grip of Godavari flood water. The flood situation is so grim in some villages that Navy helicopters are being employed to airdrop the flood relief material.

The Godavari flood affected 21 mandals in Konaseema district, 9 mandals in East Godavari district, five mandals in Alluri Sitarama Raju district, 4 mandals in West Godavari district and 3 mandals in Eluru district and 2 mandals in Kakinada district.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting with his officials to assess the flood devastation due to the Godavari floods on Saturday. With the flood situation still continuing to be alarming, he directed the officials to be vigilant and ensure that there should be no loss of life. On Friday too, the Chief Minister held a video conference with officials after conducting an aerial survey in the flood-affected districts.

The state government has so far evacuated over 65,000 people and shifted them to 220 relief camps in the six districts. Also, 229 medical camps were also set up for the flood victims and 10 NDRF and 10 SDRF teams were also conducting relief operations in the flood-hit districts.

With heavy inflows continuing, 23.94 lakh cusecs of water was being discharged into the sea at Sir Arthur Cotton barrage at Dowleswaram. The officials identified weak bunds of irrigation canals, streams and tanks at several places and took steps to strengthen them by dumping sand bags.