Heavy rains for the past four days have brought copious inflows from all directions into Anantapur leading to inundation of more than 2,000 houses in 15 colonies in the north-western parts of the city. About 70 personnel of the district fire department have been involved in the rescue operations from early the hours of Wednesday.
Five teams of the fire department, led by District Fire Officer V. Srinivas Reddy, entered every flooded house and brought the residents out to safe zones, in Rajak Nagar, Ramaiah Colony, Shanthi Nagar, Ranganath Nagar and Mutyalaraju Colony.
District Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan, Superintendent of Police Fakkeerappa Kaginelli and Joint Collector Kethan Garg supervised the rescue operations.
By 3 p.m. water began receding, and five colonies were still under a sheet of water. A special APSP team from Kurnool arrived in Anantpaur to assist the local police in shifting stranded people from the colonies. Tadakaleru, Nadimi Vanka, Kodimi Vanka and Pandameru were overflowing leading to inundation of all colonies along their path.
Anantapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy said all groceries and clothes in the majority of the 2,000 households were damaged and the government would come to the rescue of the affected people. The MLA supervised the rescue operations at Rajak Nagar and later at Vishwashanthi Nagar in Rudrampeta.
Mr. Venkatarami Reddy said that such a flood was not witnessed in the city since 1997. Nadimi Vanka, which flows in the north-western parts of the city is usually 40-foot wide, but on Wednesday it was flowing 150 feet wide.
Meanwhile, people were sheltered in some public places in the city till the water receded. Officials of the Municipal Corporation were busy cleaning streets and drains to ensure free flow of water. While three colonies were inundated on Tuesday due to the overflowing Pandameru and Nadimi Vanka, on Wednesday more number of houses were inundated as water from Alamuru, Aleru, Kakkalapalli and Yerraguntla tanks in Rapthadu constituency began flowing into Anantapur.
Due to good rains for the past two months all the ponds and tanks were full and water was coming down into River Penna through these streams and joining the Singanamala Tank. The officials are keeping people prepared for evacuation with the IMD predicting more rain.
