A flood-like situation is prevailing over north coastal Andhra Pradesh as heavy rains continued to lash the districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam on Wednesday.
The regional office of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in Hyderabad has issued a warning stating that heavy rain was likely to continue in the three districts, with rainfall also expected in the districts of East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur.
Meanwhile, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) issued an alert advising fishermen along the state's coast not to venture into the sea.
"Under the influence of well-marked low pressure area over northwest Bay of Bengal and the neighbourhood and strong monsoon conditions, strong surface winds from westerly direction speed reaching forty five to fifty kmph likely along and off coastal Andhra Pradesh," INCOIS said.
It also said that waves as high as 3 to 3.5 meters were forecasted between 5:30 pm on Wednesday and 11:30 pm on Friday along the coast from Dugarajapatnam to Baruva.
The warnings came even as seven fishermen went missing off the coast in Kakinada. Locals said that they had set sail on a mechanised boat on August 7, but were yet to return.
Following this, District collector Karthikeya Mishra requested the Coast Guard to launch a search operation for the missing men.
In the agency areas in the three districts, largely inhabited by tribal persons, access to certain areas was cut off as rising water levels inundated arterial roads.
Meanwhile, according to reports, continuous rains in Srikakulam district resulted in the disruption of road connectivity between Alikam Battili road in LN peta, even as major reservoirs in the state were up to the brim.
Media reports stated that the Nagavali and Vamasadhara rivers were in spate as officials of the Irrigation Department released 65,531 cusecs from the Gotta barrage and 58,500 cusecs from the Narayanpur dam.
The District Collectors have ordered officials to stay alert for the next few days, even as those living in low-lying areas were asked to shift to safer ground till the water levels receded.