Rains to continue further in AP

HYDERABAD: The Indian Meteorological Department said that many coastal areas are likely to witness heavy and very heavy rainfall in the next 48 hours including in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

They forecasted that the low pressure which was present in the surrounding areas of South Odisha-north coastal Andhra Pradesh on Monday had shifted to north-west on Odisha coast today. It was likely that this low pressure would get stronger in the next 48 hours. The monsoon trough extended over Jaisalmer, Kota, Pendra Road, Balangir, low-pressure center towards the southeast to East Central Bay of Bengal up to 1.5 km above mean sea level.

The Indian Meteorological Department said that the impact of low pressure would be on Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram, Manyam, Alluri Sitaramaraj, Anakapalli, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, Konaseema, Kakinada, West Godavari, Eluru, Krishna, and Guntur districts. It was also said that there would be heavy rains tomorrow and moderate to heavy rains in many places on Thursday. Fishermen were asked not to go fishing till Wednesday.

Godavari continues to receive flood due to rains in the upper reaches. The officials said that the inflow and outflow at Dhawaleswaram are 8.45 lakh cusecs and was expected that the first danger warning would be issued at night. The authorities of the disaster mitigation agency had alerted the flood-prone areas and monitoring the flood from time to time. They had prepared two NDRF and four SDRF teams for relief operations.

People of the Godavari catchment area were advised to take precautions.

Due to incessant rains and increase in Godavari's level, the traffic between Narasapuram and Sakhinetipalli was stopped by the authorities. The crematorium near the Narasapuram sand ramp was completely submerged by the flood water that reached the Godavari.

Konaseema area also is witnessing flood and breach of tanks. Water reached 11.75 metre mark at Dhawaleswaram and 12.1 lakh cusecs is being released into the sea by lifting crest gates at the barrage, as the inflow is also as much.

The water level at Polavaram is marked at 34.025 metres and the officials set up control rooms across the states to monitor flood situation.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy postponed his scheduled visit to Visakhapatnam to July 15 in view of the rains.