Hyderabad/Amaravathi: As feared, the bund of Peddavagu project was breached due to heavy inflows coming into the project for the past couple of days. Tens of villagers in both the Telugu states were submerged, leaving crops in thousands of acres, houses, livestock, and the valuables of the residents at the mercy of nature.
Due to continuous rains over the past couple of days, many irrigation tanks had been overflowing. Some of the minor irrigation tanks had breached in Buttayagudem mandal of Eluru district in Andhra Pradesh. That water started accumulating at the Peddavagu project in Aswaraopeta mandal of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district.
“I have invested between Rs 20-30 lakh on my green chilly crop in 80 acres. The entire field has been sand-casted. Even to prepare the field it will take heavy amount. Everything inside the house got washed away in the flood. I don’t know what to do. Only the government can help us out of this situation,” said a farmer from Narayanapuram village who lost his entire crop.
One of three gates stopped working
Though 35,000 cusecs were being released from three gates of Peddavagu project on Thursday, the inflows were around 70,000 cusecs of inflows. One of the three gates stopped functioning due to a mechanical issue. At around 3 pm on Thursday, water started flowing over the bund. Sensing danger, officials issued alerts in the nearby villages and stated evacuating them to safer places. As feared, at around 7.45 pm, 250-metre-long bund of the project was breached at Narayanapuram village near Katta Maisamma temple. It is estimated that Rs 20 crore was needed to repair the breached bund.
Gummadavalli, Koyarangapuram, Kothur and Ramanakkapeta villages lying downstream were partially submerged. Hundreds of cattle and other livestock got washed away in the floods.
District collector Jitesh V Patel, chief engineer Srinivas Reddy and executive engineer Suresh have been monitoring the situation at the project.
Dramatic rescue of 28 people
While most of the people ran to high-lying areas like mounds and hillocks to take shelter, there were 28 people including farm workers, farmers and commuters who were trapped in the flash floods in Narayanapuram area.
Luckily, among them was Dr Anusha, medical officer of Velairupadu mandal in Eluru district. She immediately called Eluru collector and informed him about the situation. Polavaram MLA called Agriculture minister Thummala Nageswara Rao and apprised him of the situation. Thummala coordinated with Seshagiri Rao, secretary to Telangana chief minister, Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and AP chief secretary Neerabh Kumar.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was brought in along with two helicopters to air-lift the stranded people. Twenty two people were air-lifted to safety in three rounds. The others who were stranded on a bridge flowing above a stream, were rescued by NDRF team using boats. Aswaraopet MLA Adinarayana and Polavaram MLA Balaraju oversaw the rescue operation.
Around 20 goats and two bulls were washed away in the floods. A car, an auto and ten bikes were stuck in the floods.
Devastation in Andhra Pradesh
Around ten villages in Velairpadu mandal of Eluru district came under submergence. The residents of Kammavarigudem, Ontibanda, Koyamadaram, Kothapuchirala, Pathapuchirala, Allurinagar, Vasanthawada, Sothigollagudem and Gundlavai ran to safety, leaving behind all their valuables in their houses which came under submergence.
Since Thursday morning power-supply has been stalled, bringing communication to a stand-still. Hundreds of electricity poles and transformers got destroyed in the flood fury.
Official negligence
Negligence on part of the irrigation officials is being seen as the reason for the breach of project, as despite being aware of the heavy inflows and the rain alerts issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in advance, the officials chose not to release water from one of two gates before it was too late. Though the project has three gates, one of the gates suddenly becoming defunct, is being seen as the cause for overburdening the project when the inflows were heavy.
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