A 60-year-old woman died on Tuesday after the car that she was travelling in was washed away in a flooded stream in Narsipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The deceased was identified as Uma Maheshwari. The incident took place at around 6.30 am, when the car was crossing a bridge over the Donga Gedda stream, which was overflowing.
Uma Maheshwari, her son and daughter-in-law and a driver were travelling from Narsipatnam to Tirupati, police said. The group attempted to cross the bridge over the flooded stream, and as the current was strong, the car was swept away and stranded in the midst of the water. While the driver, son and daughter-in-law managed to get out of the car, Uma Maheshwari could not.
Police were alerted about the incident at around 7 am, but had to wait for over two hours for a crane to retrieve Uma’s body and the vehicle.
“The family were going to Tirupati. Though there were lorries which had halted near the stream after witnessing the heavy flow of water, the family braved the waterflow and attempted to cross the bridge,” said Nathavaram Sub-Inspector Ramesh. While crossing the stream, the car lost control and was swept away, the SI added.
“Fire fighters, revenue and several other officials had to be engaged to retrieve the car. There were no cranes in Narsipatnam, so we had to call for help from Tuni, which is nearly 30 km away. It was an extremely risky task to pull the car from the stream. The current of the water was really strong,” Ramesh said. After an enormous effort, the car was recovered using a crane at around 9.30 am.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has reported that a deep depression has formed in the Bay of Bengal, resulting in heavy rainfall across south India. The depression had crossed over the north Andhra coast, close to Kakinada, on Tuesday morning. Under its impact, extremely heavy rainfall was forecast by the IMD in Telangana, Rayalaseema, south Konkan, Goa, central Maharashtra and Marathawada and Karnataka.