Warning signal raised in AP's Srikakulam district as water level rises

The third warning signal has been raised in Srikakulam district as the flood level at Gotta Barrage on River Vamsadhara crossed 1.11 lakh cusecs on Thursday morning.

The second warning signal was continuing at Thotapalli Barrage on River Nagavali with an inflow of 43,479 cusecs.

Heavy downpour in the upper catchment area in Odisha is resulting in copious inflows into Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers, the AP State Disaster Management Authority said.

At Kasinagar in Odisha, Vamsadhara was flowing at the danger level but has been steady at Gotta Barrage.

A 60-member team of NDRF and 35-member SDRF and 60 personnel of Fire Services Department have been deployed in Srikakulam district for rescue and relief operation in view of the flood situation.

Another team of SDRF personnel has been kept on standby at the AP Special Police Battalion at Chintavalasa in neighbouring Vizianagaram district to attend to any emergency.

About 13 boats have also been deployed in Srikakulam to evacuate people to safety in case of need.

Srikakulam District Collector J Nivas said eight relief camps were kept ready to move flood-hit people, if required. A medical camp has also been organised.

The flood level also continued to rise in River Godavari.

At Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in East Godavari district, an inflow of 12,43,686 cusecs was recorded on Thursday morning and it is expected to cross the 13 lakh cusecs mark (second warning level) soon.

At Polavaram project construction site in West Godavari, the water level stood at 27.3 metres.

In the other part of the state, the Srisailam reservoir on River Krishna continued to receive heavy flood from upstream Almatti and Jurala.

The inflow at Srisailam was 2.94 lakh cusecs and the discharge was 92,337 cusecs.