Evacuees reluctant despite record-breaking flood

Vijayawada: Despite the heaviest flood in river Krishna in more than 100 years - with 10 lakh cusecs gushing in at a menacing pace - people in many villages are still reluctant to move to safer places.

A flood of this magnitude was never seen in the state's history and the discharge in the river Krishna is expected to cross 15 lakh cusecs by Sunday. It has become a Herculean task for the authorities in Krishna, Nalgonda and Guntur districts to convince the affected people to move to safer places.

"The whole of last night, we spent time and effort in convincing people to be evacuated as the flood is of an unprecedented magnitude. We have so far moved 13,710 people from 16 villages in five mandals on the river bank to relief camps," Nalgonda district Collector S A M Rizvi said. He said many more people will have to be evacuated once the flood level crosses the 10 lakh cusecs mark.

Some of the people who were shifted to relief camps late on Friday night returned to their houses on Saturday morning, forcing the Nalgonda district administration to issue a stern warning and shift them back to the camps.

In Guntur district, 4,000 people have already been moved to relief camps in 12 mandals while many more will be evacuated.

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