River Krishna swells; villages face threat

River Krishna virtually turned into a sea in all its fury today as a record 10.61lakh cusecs of flood water reached Prakasam Barrage, threatening to submerge some villages.

This is the heaviest flood in river Krishna in more than 106 years as the previous record stands at 10.30lakh cusecs in 1903, irrigation authorities said.

The water level touched 21.4feet at Prakasam Barrage and all the 72 sluice gates have been lifted to let out water into the Bay of Bengal.

They said said the current flood discharge at Nagarjuna Sagar has been reduced to 10.3lakh cusescs from 11lakh cusecs yesterday.

The discharge is expected to remain constant at least in the next 24 hours and the outflow from Prakasam Barrage will also be around 10.5lakh cusecs.

Chodavaram village on the downstream of Prakasam Barrage is facing a grave threat as flood water is about to submerge the entire village.

However, there is no threat to lives as villagers have already moved in relief camps.

Two more villages near Thotalvalluru also faced a severe threat as river embankment is found to be weak. Water seepage from the embankment in some places could lead to inundation of villages on the Krishna left bank.

Lakhs of sand bags are being dumped along the embankment at vulnerable points to prevent any breach, revenue officials said.