Hyderabad: The death toll in the incessant rains lashing Andhra Pradesh for the last five days rose to 42 with the authorities yesterday reporting 10 more deaths.
Five people were also missing while crops in about eight lakh hectares were damaged in the floods caused by heavy rains under the impact of low pressure area and northeast monsoon.
Officials said the rains left thousands homeless, inundated hundreds of villages, damaged houses, roads and railway tracks. The loss is estimated to be `17.27bn. The deaths in rain-related incidents like wall collapse and drowning were reported from 10 districts.
Guntur district accounted for eight deaths, Nalgonda seven and Prakasam six. Four people were killed in Mahabubnagar and three each in Hyderabad, Kurnool, Vizianagaram, Chittoor and West Godavari districts. Two deaths were reported from Warangal district. According to disaster management department, 84,769 people have been evacuated to safer places. The authorities opened 225 relief camps. Over 21,000 houses were damaged in 19 districts.
Nineteen teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in various districts for rescue and relief operations.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy reviewed the situation at a meeting with ministers and top officials in Hyderabad yesterday. He directed the officials to take up relief measures on war footing.
He noted that though rains started receding yesterday, they damaged crops over 7.99 lakh hectares. The damaged crops include cotton over 4.07 lakh hectares and paddy 3.48 lakh hectares. Other crops like maize, groundnut, redgram, sugarcane, tobacco and blackgram were also damaged.
The heavy rains caused breaches to 1,020 minor trrigation tanks and damaged roads up to a length of 4,047 kms.
The rains cut road links to many villages and disrupted traffic between various cities and towns. The movement of trains was also hit with railway tracks coming under flood water in Nalgonda and Srikakulam districts. The state government has deployed 580 medical teams to provide aid to the victims.
A central team will visit Odisha today to assess the damage caused by cyclone Phailin and subsequent floods, as the toll in flood-related incidents rose to 60, an official said.
The 12-member inter-ministerial team, led by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Rashmi Goel, will be in the state until the end of the month. During their stay they will make an on-the-spot assessment of the damage, a senior official of the office of the state’s special relief commissioner said.IANS
