According to official figures, at 1 pm on 2 September, the district received rainfall of 329.7 mm as against the normal rainfall of 17.1 mm.
Published Sep 02, 2024 | 4:46 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 02, 2024 | 5:45 PM
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu visiting the flood affected areas in Vijayawada. (X)
No one knows how Noah’s Great Deluge looked like but the huge mass of water that invaded nearly half of Vijayawada on Sunday, 1 September, situated close to the upcoming Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati, gives a fair idea.
The drone pictures explained how Vijayawada became a helpless victim of nature’s fury. It is very difficult to see the ground anywhere with all the passages full of swirling waters.
There is no way for people to come out of their homes as the water outside is almost waist-high in several parts. The flow of water remained very fierce till Sunday evening, claiming 15 lives including those in other parts of the state.
According to official figures, at 1 pm on Monday, 2 September, the district received rainfall of 329.7 mm (cumulative) as against the normal rainfall of 17.1 mm with a deviation of 1,828 percent between 31 August and 2 September. Vijayawada received 327.2 mm (cumulative) as against the normal rainfall of 14.9 mm
The official figures put the human loss in the state at eight including five people in a landslide in Moghulrajpuram in Vijayawada. As many as 72 medium irrigation tanks had breached, which led to the inundation of several parts of Vijayawada and elsewhere in the state.
The rickety infrastructure of Vijayawada, which was never designed to take the load of a capital city of a state, had broken down helplessly when the sky opened up sending 29 cm of water in unending sheets, for the first time in 30 years.
The rainfall continued till it went up to 37 cm, ravaging parts of the city till Sunday evening. Even though Krishna River was in spate already, fortunately, it did not affect the city much but Budameru, which is known as Sorrow of Vijayawada, struck the city with vengeance.
The roar of the Krishna waters passing through at Prakasam barrage — the discharge was an unprecedented 11 lakh cusses at 1 pm on Monday —frightened the living daylights out of the people.
During the 2009 floods, when Krishna was in spate, the discharge was nine lakh cusecs, considered the highest in the river’s history. On Sunday, it was much worse as the water kept flowing down at breakneck speed, threatening to invade villages along banks downstream.
The water did not spare Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s residence either. As it is right on the Krishna riverbank, it went up to the main building, as if to tell him that, however powerful he might be, he cannot take the river for granted.
However, it was the Budameru rivulet that did the heaviest damage to Vijayawada. Though the rivulet has been a cause of sorrow for the city for the last three to four decades, successive governments have never bothered to fully address the issue.
In 2005, it demonstrated how fierce and menacing it could get which made the then chief minister late YS Rajasekhar Reddy think of a diversion scheme — to divert the flood water into Polavaram Right Canal at the tail end before it joins the Krishna River.
However, its capacity was too small compared to the huge flow the rivulet could have in times of heavy rains.
The canal was never widened as required, leaving the city vulnerable and defenceless. Though there was water flow into the Krishna since the drive itself was in spate, there was a rebound of the flow in Budameru leading to the breaching of the bund at New Rajarajeswaripet.
Since 2005, the city has grown extensively and encroached on the natural course of Budameru leading to the mushrooming of colonies like Nandamuri Nagar and New Rajararajeswaripet.
The city was allowed to grow and expand unmindful of how tampering with nature would lead to disastrous consequences like the one that occurred on Sunday.
Water always finds its way to its destination, no matter what obstructions come up in its course. On Sunday, it did the same, inundating a major part of the city, leaving it totally marooned.
All hell broke loose on Sunday morning when the embankment of the Budameru rivulet in New Rajarajeswaripet breached.
The rivulet, which was receiving huge volumes of water from its catchment area, which is mainly run-off water from the nearby hillocks in Mailavaram in the Krishna district, spread across the city like the Wrath of God, leaving several people homeless, affecting more than one lakh people.
According to tentative figures, about 25 lakh abodes had been affected not only in Vijayawada but elsewhere in the state. Household articles — including very expensive ones — were washed away as the people watched helplessly.
This time its effect was secular, it affected both the rich and the poor alike. If the middle class lost their bikes, the rich lost their cars. They sailed away in flood waters as if of their own volition.
The heavy rains and the consequent deluge have disrupted road and rail transportation from out of Vijayawada. The south-central railway cancelled 140 trains and diverted 97 trains as the waters had washed away tracks at several palaces and some pleas water was overflowing them, making the operation of trains impossible.
The passengers in stalled trains were helped to reach safety. In Ryanapandu near Vijayawada, rescue teams helped stranded passengers walk to safety, using a heavy rope.
The road transportation to Hyderabad from Vijayawada was affected by flood waters overflowing the highway at Itavaram near Nandigama in the Krishna district.
The bus services between the two capitals were stopped till further notice while some bus services were allowed to leave for Telangana capital via Guntur where the rain impact was not much.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who always rises to the occasion whenever there is a disaster of this scale, rushed to the worst affected area — Singh Nagar in Vijayawada — in a bus.
He visited the areas that had been ravaged by the flood fury. He spoke to the people assuring them of the government’s help.
He was in the midst of the people till the early hours of Monday and then returned to his bus. At daybreak on Monday, he was again with the people distributing food and water packets and other essential commodities. At some places he himself distributed them.
The rains damaged paddy cotton, black gram, and green gram crops in 2,415 hectares and horticulture corps in 4,994 hectares. As many as 16 municipal divisions were affected by floods while the outflow at Prakasam barrage at 1 pm on Monday was 11.43 lakh cusecs, the highest in the river’s history.
As many as 2.76 lakh people have been affected. The state government opened 67 shelters and shifted 11,567 people to them. As many as 10 SDRF and 13 NDRF teams have been deployed and two more SDRF teams from Kurnool and three NDRF Teams from Odisha are on their way to Vijayawada.
The state government has requested six helicopters for airlifting stranded people and air-dropping food items, 10 NDRF teams and 40 motorised boats for undertaking search and rescue operations in the affected districts. One helicopter has already already arrived in Vijayawada.
As many as 53 Boats (18 non-motorised and 35 motorised) have been pressed into service to evacuate people from the inundated areas of Ajithsingh Nagar, YSR Colony, Jakkampudi Colony, Ambapuram in Vijayawada Urban and Rural mandals.
56 boats from Kakinada Eluru and Prakaam district are on their way and another 64 boats are arranged in Krishna and Bapatla Districts for rescue operation. The government fixed 159 APSRTC buses for fetching passengers from surrounding Railway stations to Vijayawada. Toll-free helpline numbers have been set up to help the victims — 112, 1070.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
