Nellore: A fair price shop dealer Boina Ramanaiah, 57, was washed away while crossing Kaivaylya River at Vengamanaidupalle in Dakkili mandal along with three others late on Tuesday night. Shocked with the incident, the friends of the deceased avoided crossing the river and alerted the officials. In another incident A labour Kantepalli Balu, 45, of Ballavolu washed away in the flood waters following a breach to Kadivedu tank in Chillakur mandal on Wednesday.
Body of an unidentified woman was found floating in Nandipadu tank in Duttalur mandal and bo-dy of a man was spotted on the banks of Swarna-mukhi River near Nayu-dupeta. Penna, Swarnamukhi and Kalangi rivers are in spate and several villa-ges on the banks of Penn-ar are marooned.
Officials shifting the people struck in the wat-er to safer places. In view of heavy inflo-ws into Swarnamukhi River, 22 crest gates have been opened at the barrage near Vakadu.
This led to inundation of several villages in Kota, Vakadu and Chittamur mandals. Scores of villages and even parts of towns inc-luding Nellore City are under the grip of darkness as electricity officials opted to power shutdown as a precautionary measure. According to irrigation officials 1,50,000 cusecs of water being released into sea from Penna.
Meanwhile Coastguard station at Krishnapat-nam rescued 13 persons including 4 women and 3 children from flood affe-cted area at Muthukur mandal (inland coastal area).
On receipt of information from Sub-Inspector of Muthukur, police station regarding 40 families being stranded at Muthukur mandal (inla-nd coastal area) due to intense rainfall for over 72 hours, Coastguard off-icials dispatched a Gem-ini (rubber boat) by road to the location for rescue operations. NDRF teams carrying food pockets and water sachets to marooned villages in different parts of the district.
Meanwhile irrigation minister Devineni Uma-maheswar Rao expressed confidence in supplying water for 10 lakh acres to raise crops while pointing to huge inflows into Somasila project during a visit to Sangam barrage on Wednesday.
The minister said that the rain water would be useful for rabi crops. Meanwhile the state government has declared holiday for schools and colleges in Gudur and Nellore Divisions on Thursday.
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