June 24, 2007
Flood Situation Eases in Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad
The overall flood situation in Andhra Pradesh improved Sunday with
floodwaters receding in districts where heavy rains had left a trail
of destruction and claimed 38 lives.
Relief operations were in full swing to provide succour to the
200,000 people displaced by heavy rains and floods in five
districts.
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who visited the worst-hit
Kurnool district earlier in the day, told the media here in the
evening that the death toll mounted to 38 with six deaths being
reported from different areas since Saturday. Seven people are
missing.
He directed officials to pay compensation to the affected by
Tuesday. The government has already announced Rs.200,000 for the kin
of each of those dead.
He said 52,000 people had taken shelter in relief camps in Kurnool
district alone. However, in other affected districts people began
returning home from the relief camps.
The chief minister said heavy rains had abated except in north
coastal district of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam,
which were not hit by the floods.
The heavy rains and floods triggered by a low-pressure area in the
Bay of Bengal damaged houses and crops, uprooted electricity and
communication poles and disrupted road and rail traffic. According
to initial estimates, the floods have caused damage worth Rs.10
billion.
Officials said the heavy rains inundated more than 200 villages in
Kurnool, Guntur, Prakasam, East Godavari, West Godavari,
Mahabubnagar, Anantapur and Kadpa districts. The rivulets, tanks and
stream overflowed in the heavy downpour, inundating dozens of
low-lying towns and villages.
The chief minister said as many as 280 tanks breached in the
affected districts.
According to Disaster Management Commissioner Preeti Sudan, 330,179
people in 222 villages and towns were affected by the floods.
Preliminary reports said 9,799 houses were damaged and 8,537
livestock had died.
The authorities distributed 533,000 food packets and 925,000 clean
water sachets to people in the affected areas. Also, 62 teams have
been formed to conduct medical camps in affected areas to prevent
outbreak of any epidemic.
While the low-pressure area has weakened and moved towards
Maharashtra, several parts of the state were receiving rains as the
southwest monsoon is active in the region. The state has already
received 49 percent in excess of the normal rain this monsoon.
The chief minister visited Nandyal town in Kurnool district, which
was inundated Friday. He had to face the ire of victims, who stopped
his convoy and complained that no official had come to their rescue
in the last three days.
After three days, vehicular traffic began limping back to normal in
the flood-hit districts. Traffic returned to normalcy on the
Kurnool-Chittoor national highway. The road between Kurnool and
Nandyal towns was re-opened.
Meanwhile, the water levels in both Krishna and Godavari, the two
major rivers which flow through the state, were rising due to heavy
rains upstream. The water level is also rising in other small rivers
and their tributaries.
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