Rains: 500 marooned in Andhra village

Five rescue officers were trapped along with 500 residents of a village in Prakasham district of Andhra Pradesh, which bore the brunt of the rain fury.

District Panchayat Officer Nagarjuna Sagar, MDO Hemadri Naidu, Guduru MRO Srinivasulu Reddy, Sub-Inspector Karunakar and another police officer went to Karlapalem village in Gudluru mandal to oversee rescue operations, when overflowing water from the Buckingham Canal surrounded the village.

As the village was situated between the canal on one side and the sea on the other, villagers were trapped.

Though there was no danger of the village being submerged as it was on elevated land, the district administration is finding it difficult to send rescuers.

Collector Udaya Lakshmi said officers were sent to the village to find ways of reaching the villagers or supplying food and other essentials to them.

Six other villages were also marooned in the district. Seven tanks breached and many roads were damaged due to floodwaters.

Traffic between Ongole and Kandukuru, and Kandukuru and Kanigiri came to a standstill as roads were badly damaged.