Page:Gódávari.djvu/173

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RAINFALL AND SEASONS.
147

banks, and rising again to 13'7 on the l6th much increased the harm already done.

The last of this long list of calamities occurred in 1900. Before daylight on the 14th August the river overtopped the lock and canal banks at Dummagúdem and completely flooded out that village, driving the inhabitants to the higher ground and drowning a few women and children. It breached its bank near the Vijésvaram anicut and did great damage to the works of the western delta in the present Kistna district; and the central delta was inundated through numerous breaches in the Gautami, Vasishta and Vainatéyam. Little harm was done to the eastern delta, though parts of Rajahmundry taluk were inundated by a breach in the flood-bank. The repairs to the breaches had not been finished before a slightly higher flood on the 22nd September (l5'8 feet over the anicut) opened many of them again. The damage done to the delta and Dummagúdem works was estimated at Rs. 10 lakhs. Only about Rs. 40,000 had to be remitted for submerged crop in the present district. The taluk worst affected was Amalápuram, where 4,000 houses were destroyed and some 70,000 acres of land were more or less damaged.