Rain batters Prakasam district

Ongole, Nov 14: With heavy rains continuing for the thrid day on Friday, normal life was disrupted in the town and several other parts of Prakasam district. The rains fell due to low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal. Vehicular traffic was suspended for some time between Chirala and Ongole after irrigation authorities let out 13,700 cusecs of rain water downstream from the Obul Reddy Gundalakamma reservoir. This caused flooding of the Madiralapadu causeway. With Nallavagu was in spate, traffic between Ongole and Kothapatnam suffered. Irrigation Superintending Engineer D.Koteswara Rao said there is no threat of breaches to any of the 952 tanks in the district. With Ongole receiving 13.8 cm rainfall in the last 24 hours, water entered some houses in the lowlying areas. Meanwhile, weatherman predicted more rain in the next 24 hours. With the north-east monsoon turning active, farmers wish to take up cultivation in a big way during Rabi season after drought in all the 56 mandals in the district dashed their hopes of a good return during Khariff season. Prakasam district received an average rainfall of 40.3 mm in the 24 hours ending at 0800 hrs on Friday.