HYDERABAD/KURNOOL: Thousands of people were trapped and a few lakh more were staring at a possible disaster as Andhra Pradesh witnessed unprecedented floods in the Krishna and its tributaries on Friday.
Srisailam reservoir has been receiving record inflows — over 20 lakh cusecs — and the water level has already crossed the FRL of 885 ft. With more than 10 lakh cusecs being discharged to prevent a threat to the dam, water levels in the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir and Prakasam Barrage downstream have been rising every minute.
The backwash from the Srisailam has already left most parts of Kurnool town under a sheet of water and sensing further danger the government has advised the entire population — over three lakh — to vacate and move to safer places.
The town is already six feet under and the level is expected to rise by four more feet by morning. A similar situation prevails in Mahboobnagar district.
Thousands of people in villages of Nalgonda, Guntur and Krishna districts downstream of the Nagarjunasagar and Prakasam barrage in Vijayawada city face a similar threat. Already, over a lakh of people have been evacuated in Vijayawada.
The State administration appears to have been caught napping as Srisailam reservoir, since engulfed, started receiving inflows of over 20 lakh cusecs yesterday owing to heavy rain in the catchment areas, both in the State and in neighbouring Karnataka.
As the outflow was only half that volume, the waters in the reservoir backed into the Tungabhadra causing floods in Kurnool district. More than 25,000 people have been marooned for over 24 hours now even as the town is enveloped in darkness with power cut off. The discharge from the other big dam on the Krishna — Nagarjuna Sagar — is likely to increase to 10 lakh by this night. All 26 gates have been lifted. This poses a serious threat to Vijayawada city as the water from Sagar flows to Prakasam barrage which can withstand an inflow of only 10 lakh cusecs. However, officials claimed that there was no threat to either Srisailam or Sagar reservoirs as of now.
‘‘These are the worst-ever floods in the history of the State. We are doing all that we can to minimise loss of life,’’ said Chief Minister K Rosaiah. He had sought help from defence forces even as he briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of the crisis.
Ministers camping in the worst-affected Kurnool district have openly admitted that the situation was fast slipping out of control.
Local MPs and MLAs vacated their homes and shifted to safer locations. Helicopters and fibre boats had been pressed into service but given the gravity of the situation efforts are required on an immense scale.
The temple town of Mantralayam, including the Raghavendra Swamy temple, is under water. Indian Air Force helicopters, however, managed to rescue temple chief Suyathindra Swamy and shifted him to Hospet while the rest of the town lay submerged in the floods.
By 11:00 p.m. the government grew anxious and after a review by the Chief Minister, who camped in the Secretariat for the night, the entire population of Kurnool has been asked to move out. It is not going to be an easy task as water in many areas has risen to secondfloor levels in the old town. The figure of marooned people could reach 50,000 by tomorrow.
Helicopter sorties, few and far between, were not much help with the water and food packets dropped failing to reach the marooned.
The situation began getting grim yesterday afternoon itself, and has since worsened by the minute. At several locations, power supply has been switched off, and train and road transport hit, including movement on the national highway between Hyderabad and Bangalore.
