Floods in the Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh continued to rise again on Wednesday after showing a declining trend in the last two days following heavy rains in the upper reaches. As a result, the instantaneous inflow and outflow at Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowaleswaram near Rajamahendravaram rose to 14.42 lakh cusecs (cubic foot of water flow per second). In Bhadrachalam in neighboring Telangana, the Godavari flood was recorded at about 15 lakh cusecs, crossing the third danger mark at 54.5 feet.
That much flood will flow down to the Cotton Barrage in the next few hours. The State Disaster Management Authority said the second warning signal remained in place at Cotton Barrage even as three teams each from NDRF and SDRF were deployed in flood-hit Alluri Sitarama Raju, BR Ambedkar Konaseema and Eluru districts for rescue operations. .
People along the river course must be alert till the flood recedes, SDMA Director General B R Ambedkar said in a release. Meanwhile, in the Krishna river, the flow from the Srisailam reservoir was 3.95 lakh cusecs on Wednesday morning. Almost the same amount of flood water was released from Nagarjuna Sagar Dam downstream, AP Water Resources Information Management System data showed.
At Dr. KL Rao Sagar Pulichintala under Nagarjuna Sagar inflow was recorded at 3.75 lakh cusecs and outflow 3.56 lakh cusecs. A release of 2.93 lakh cusecs was recorded at the Prakasam barrage in Vijayawada below. Elsewhere in the state, Nagavali and Vamsadhara rivers in Srikakulam district are also recording heavy inflows due to heavy rains in the basin. The flood flow rose to 54,853 cusecs at the Gotta barrage in Srikakulam after which the first warning signal was sounded.
