Five people were killed in landslides triggered by heavy rainfall in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada city, while three others died when the car which they were travelling in was washed away in an overflowing stream in Guntur district on Saturday, officials familiar with the matter said.
The landslide took place at Sunnapubatti centre of Moghulrajapuram Colony abutting a hillock in the heart of Vijayawada at around 7.15 am. Heavy stones from the hillock crashed on the houses. “While one house was completely destroyed killing four of the inmates inside, at least three other houses suffered partial damage,” a senior police official of the Vijayawada police commissionerate said.
Vijayawada Municipal Commissioner HM Dhyanachandra said five persons died due to landslides at Mogalrajapuram.
The police, along with revenue officials, immediately rushed to the spot and took up rescue operations. “However, heavy rains hampered the speedy rescue operations. The affected houses were located close to the hills; so there were chances of further landslides,” the official said.
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The deceased were identified as M Meghana (25), Bolem Lakshmi (49), Lalu (20) (believed to be a worker from Bihar) and Annapurna (55). While Meghana’s body was the first one to be retrieved from the rubble, it took more than eight hours to bring out the bodies of the other three. “As the rescuers were attempting to retrieve the bodies of the victims, another landslide occurred in the afternoon, further complicating rescue efforts,” the official said, adding that six others, who were also injured in the landslides, are recuperating at the Vijayawada government hospital.
An official statement said chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed grief over the incident and announced ex gratia of ₹5 lakh to each of the families of the deceased. He asked the authorities to shift people from the areas abutting the hillocks to safer places.
Naidu assured the affected families of the government’s support and urged the public to cooperate with the officials during these operations. Vijayawada East zone MLA Gadde Rama Mohan visited the site to oversee rescue operations.
In a related incident, landslides also hit the Indrakeeladri hill due to the relentless downpour in Vijayawada. Boulders fell onto the Protocol Room, but a major disaster was averted as the ghat road had been closed in advance.
Vijayawada has received heavy rainfall since Friday night, bringing the entire city to a standstill. Several places including Jawaharlal Nehru RTC Bus Station were completely submerged in knee-deep water. Major highways and state roads, including the Benz Circle Flyover, have been inundated, making travel difficult.
Officials said that vehicles coming from Hyderabad and Chennai were stuck at the Ramavarapadu Ring Road due to heavy traffic congestion. At the same time, waterlogging also affected the major national highways including the Kondapalli-Chhattisgarh National Highway.
According to a weather bulletin from IMD, Amaravati, Vijayawada received about 187 mm rain over the past 24 hours. Vijayawada Municipal Corporation officials and police have been on high alert and monitoring the situation in the city to take up rescue and relief measures wherever necessary.
Meanwhile, a school teacher and two students were washed away in the overflowing stream at Uppalapadu village of Pedakakani block of Guntur district on Saturday.
The teacher, identified as Nadumpalli Raghavendra (38) who teaches mathematics at the government school at Namburu village, was returning to his native place Uppalapadu, along with two students – Pasupuleti Sourish (6) and Koduri Manwith (9), both from his village.
“As the car was crossing the stream, which was overflowing due to heavy rains in the area, Raghavendra lost control over steering and it overturned in the water and got washed away in the flood. Their bodies were recovered in the evening,” the police said.
Several other parts of Andhra Pradesh received heavy to very heavy rainfall due to due to a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal which intensified into a depression.
The IMD said the well-marked low-pressure area over the west-central and adjacent northwest Bay of Bengal off the coast of north Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha had moved west-north-westwards and intensified into a depression by 5:30 am on Saturday.
Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) managing director R Kurmanadh indicated that parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh are expected to receive heavy rainfall. Penumalli in Krishna district received the highest rainfall of 202.5 mm till Saturday morning, followed by 182 mm in Vijayawada, 162 mm in Ungutur in Krishna district and 148.5 mm in Eluru district.
Most of the districts on the coastal Andhra declared a holiday for schools on Saturday because of heavy rainfall.
