VISAKHAPATNAM: Heavy rains under the impact of Cyclone Arnab flooded several villages in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, snapping road and rail connectivity and causing widespread damage to crops.
Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Mahendrathanaya, and Bahuda Rivers were in spate on Thursday due to heavy rains and massive flood inflows from neighbouring Odisha.
With authorities opening the floodgates of Baghalati Dam in neighbouring Odisha, Bahuda took a fierce form at Itchapuram due to massive inflows from upstream. Huge inflows led to an unprecedented rise in the water level in the river in Srikakulam district.
As a result of the heavy rains in the last three days and floods in the Bahuda River, National Highway 16 (Kolkata-Chennai Highway) was inundated. The traffic on the highway came to a total halt.
Authorities have issued the third danger warning for the Bahuda River. Several villages in the region were cut off due to the floods.
Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were engaged in rescue and relief operations.
Heavy rains and floods have caused extensive damage to crops in the district.
The railway track was also flooded at Tallabhadra in Sompeta mandal, disrupting train traffic in the region. The track was also flooded at Jadupudi in Kanchili mandal of Srikakulam district, affecting the train movements.
South Coast Railway has cancelled or diverted some trains due to flooding of tracks at a few places in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts.
Roads at several places in the north coastal Andhra turned into lakes due to heavy rains under the impact of a very severe cyclone ‘Arnab’ which crossed the coast in the early hours of Wednesday.
After crossing the coast, it weakened into a depression. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) the depression over south Chhattisgarh and adjoining south Odisha lay centered at 0830 hours IST, over the same region, about 40 km north-northwest of Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh), 180 km southwest of Titlagarh (Odisha), 150 km west-southwest of Bhawanipatna (Odisha), 200 km south of Raipur (Odisha), and 310 km southwest of Sambalpur (Odisha).
It is very likely to continue moving nearly northwards and weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area over North Chhattisgarh and adjoining Northwest Odisha around the evening of October 29.
The IMD said that during past 24 hours, there has been widespread rainfall activity over north Andhra Pradesh, Northeast Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Gangetic West Bengal with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall (21 cm or more) at a isolated places over South Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh, heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over North Odisha and heavy rainfall at isolated places over Northeast Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Gangetic West Bengal.