Visakhapatnam:
At least 24 people are dead in the devastating floods sweeping the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh as heavy rains brought by the northeast monsoon and last week's Cyclone Nilam continue to pound the state.
Two deaths were confirmed today, pushing up Sunday's toll.
(Track live updates here)Latest reports said 150 villages in Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Krishna, Guntur and the east and west Godavari districts were submerged. Around 67,000 people had been evacuated. Crops spread over 2.5 lakh hectares of farmland were under water and schools remained shut.
Narsapuram in West Godavari district received 31 cm of rainfall, the highest in many years. Seventy two villages in Vishaka agency area and four substations in the Nagavali river area were under water.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will be touring the affected districts today. TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Congress's YS Vijayamma will be in the Godavari and Krishna districts.
At Satyavaram in Srikakulam district, villagers spent Sunday on roof-tops till help reached them. Two Navy helicopters rescued around 70 people from the swollen Hemadri Gadda rivulet in Visakhapatnam. A similar operation was on to save passengers of two buses caught in the waters of the Dharmavaram stream.
Disaster Management Commissioner T Radha said 16 people were evacuated from a vedic school near Tuni. Many localities were under knee-deep water around Rajahmundry, Tanuku and Tuni.
More deaths are feared as several areas remain submerged. The worse may not be over as more rainfall is expected in the next two days.
Transportation is in a mess. The railways have cancelled 14 trains and diverted some other. Bus services too are disrupted because of the flooding of roads and drains.
Traffic to Orissa from north coastal Andhra Pradesh shut down as a bridge at Palakonda developed cracks.
(With PTI inputs)