New Delhi:
The flood situation in India's east coast turned grim on Saturday with at least 42 people having lost their lives and thousands evacuated in the last four days in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. After Cyclone Phailin, now a cyclonic storm that turned into a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal has caused incessant rains, inundated hundreds of villages and damaged houses and crops.
Here are the latest developments:
Not just coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, but even Telangana is experiencing heavy rain in Andhra Pradesh. With rivers on spate, officials are worried over possible breach to embankments and tanks due to the flash floods.
More than 78,000 people have been evacuated mainly in Srikakulam and Guntur districts to 135 relief camps. Several hundred villages are cut off.
Standing crops in over 6.78 lakh hectares, mainly paddy and cotton, have been inundated and over 5,100 km of roads are reported to be damaged.
12 National Disaster Response Force or NDRF teams have been deployed in the badly affected districts. In Guntur and Prakasam districts, relief teams rescued marooned passengers of public transport buses.
Heavy to very heavy rain is expected in isolated areas all over state in the next 48 hours.
In Hyderabad itself, several colonies are inundated. People were either moving from ground floor to higher floors or to less flooded areas.
In neighbouring Odisha, floods have wreaked havoc leaving lakhs marooned. 10 people have lost their lives so far in the state.
Ganjam is the worst affected, with officials saying it has rained thrice as much as during Cyclone Phailin. Over 50,000 people are cut off while nearly 85,000 have been rescued. Out of the 22 blocks in the district, 17 including Aska, Polsara, Chikiti, Purusottampur, Rangeilunda and Shergad are the worst affected.
Three Air Force helicopters are carrying out sorties for relief and rescue in the state, dropping food items within 30 miles of Gopalpur.
The Odisha government has ordered closure of all schools and colleges in the flood-hit districts till Monday. All trains have been cancelled.
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