Flood fury: Situation in Prayagraj grim, brings back 1978 memories

Prayagraj: With the swollen rivers Ganga and Yamuna marooning several areas, memories of the worst-ever floods of 1978 have come back to haunt the survivors.
People in the low-lying areas are having sleepless nights as the water level of both the rivers is rising at an alarming pace of 3cm per hour. Spell of heavy rain in the past 24 hours has added to the woes of the people.
Situation could be gauzed by the fact that the level of water of Ganga at Phaphamau (as recorded at 6pm on Tuesday) was over one meter above the danger mark. The water level was 85.78 meters while the danger mark is at 84.74m. Likewise, the water level of Ganga at Chhatnag was 85.03m at 4pm and still rising.
The water level of river Yamuna too has increased in the past 24 hours. The water level at 10pm (Monday) was 85.21m, which increased to 85.68m at 6pm on Tuesday. The entire Gaughat, Baradari of Balaughat and parts of Kareli are submerged in flood water. Flood water has fully submerged the ground floor of many localities situated on the banks of Ganga and boats are being used to ply people and necessary items. Areas like Bagraha, Daraganj, Salori, Beli Gaon, Mehenduari Goan, Ganga Nagar, parts of Rajapur and Ashok Nagar are also marooned.
On Tuesday too, teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the local administration were busy shifting people to safer places or providing necessary items to those stranded in the flooded localities.
“We are providing all the help needed by the flood affected locals and do rounds of the localities every two hours and asking if anyone wants to move to safer places but now as people have shifted to first floors of their houses, they are reluctant to leave”, said team leader of NDRF, Inspector Dinkar Tripathi. One team of NDRF having 25 personnel with two boats have been pressed into service to help flood victims.
However, with the flood situation worsening, memories of 1978 flood has started haunting the people. “We still remember that localities, including Mumforganj, Kyganj, Muttuganj, Alopibag, Khatghar, Bairana and Kareli were flooded. Had it not been the efforts of then district magistrate Bhure Lal and the SSP Ajay Raj Sharma along with the strong force of students of Allahabad University and several colleges and social organization, the damage would have been multi fold,” said Anand Prasad, a local.
“The flood of 1978 was so intense that waves of river Yamuna were colliding with the road of the bridge and we still remember Ganga and Yamuna had inundated almost every locality of the city. Barring the inside high land, people of Allahapur used to sit in the boats from the first floor of their houses,” said veteran politician of the city Shyam Krishna Pandey. The then DM had not slept for four days and four night continuously and assured that the relief items reaches everyone affected by the floods. Sharing his experience, Congress MLA from city North, Anugrah Narayan Singh said, “The flood water from Ganga had crossed the present pump house of the Stanley road of Mumfordganj because of which the entire locality was inundated and boats were pressed into service”.