Cyclone Murasu forces authorities to open all Prakasam Barrage gates as massive water flows enter river

Officials in Vijayawada have lifted every single gate of the Prakasam Barrage to clear out heavy floodwater brought by Cyclone Murasu. All seventy iron barriers were pulled up on Wednesday after continuous downpours filled up the local river basin.

Discharge And Water Levels

The structure took in seventy-one thousand cusecs of water by Wednesday morning, and workers passed the entire volume right through toward the Bay of Bengal. The water mark at the site reached twelve feet. To push out the extra water safely, thirty gates went up by two feet while the remaining forty gates were raised by one foot. Water authorities also cut off supply lines running into the local canal networks as a safety step against local flooding.

Sources Of The Flood

Most of the incoming water rushed down from nearby streams including the Munneru, Keesara, and Budameru channels. The heavy downpour pounded the NTR district especially hard, while EDlapadu in Palnadu district logged the state's highest rainfall at nearly two hundred seventy millimeters over a twenty-four hour period. Officials noted that sixteen automated weather stations recorded totals crossing the official threshold for extremely heavy rain.

Context

Cyclonic storms regularly trigger intense downpours across coastal regions of India, forcing authorities to closely manage large river barrages to prevent overflow into populated zones. Local disaster management teams typically issue safety alerts in low-lying riverside areas whenever water levels rise rapidly. Weather departments track these systems continuously to provide advance warnings for districts facing heavy precipitation.