Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee(APCC) constitutes 3-member team fo Andhra Pradesh district

Hyderabad, Oct 3 : Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee(APCC) President D Srinivas today constituted a three-member team for monitoring the flood situation in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh.

Talking to newspersons here, APCC General Secretary Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar said the team for Vijayawada, announced yesterday, would also cover Krishna district.

The APCC had selected yesterday, teams for Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar districts, apart from Vijayawada.

Mr Bhaskar said the APCC teams would coordinate with the party leadership and public representatives of the Congress in flood-affected areas and would motivate the party workers to assist in relief activities for affected people.

Armed Forces launch war-like effort to rescue flood affected in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka

Bangalore, Oct 3: The Armed Forces on Saturday intensified the search, rescue and relief operations for people in the flood ravaged states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The Army, Air Force and the Navy are working in tandem to rescue affected people and provide food in the affected areas.

The IAF has deployed 13 helicopters, including five MI-8 and eight Chetaks in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which have already carried out 17 sorties.

In addition, four AN-32 aircraft have carried out 13 sorties airlifting men and material provided by National Disaster Management Authority from Pune to the affected areas in the two states.

One AN-32 sortie carrying relief for affected people in Kurnool from Arkullaum to Hyderabad had to be diverted to Karnataka as the road link to Kurnoool had been washed away in many places.

Relief material, boats and other equipment have also reached Kurnool, while a large number of Jawans and boats scheduled to be moved from Bangalore to Bellary have been held up due to heavy rains in the West Coast.

The Navy in Karwar and Goa have been providing relief operations in the affected areas in the West Coast of Karnataka.

The IAF will deploy an IL-76 today from Bhubaneswar to Bangalore to transport 350 men and 50 boats to join in the search and relief missions, and an additional 100 men and 30 boats are also being pressed into service by a sortie from Pune to Hyderabad.

Further, 270 persons and 30 boats will be airlifted from Bhatinda and New Delhi to the affected areas as per decisions of the NDMA.

The Eastern Naval Command has been alerted to remain on standby for any eventuality in Vijayawada.

The Navy has so far rescued 130 people, while 150 people stranded at Karwar base are being provided food and shelter.

Death toll in Andhra Pradesh floods mounts

Andhra Pradesh is grappling with large scale death and destruction caused by heavy rains across the state. About 40 people went missing on Sunday after a lorry carrying about 50 people was washed away in flash floods in a rivulet in Guntur district as it was drying negotiate the flood waters over a bridge.

The tragedy occurred when the toll in the continuing heavy rains and flood over the last two days has mounted to 59 — 14 of them in the state capital Hyderabad and 13 in Krishna district.

Transport Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, who was among the first to reach the spot to oversee the rescue operations, said that while seven persons survived, three bodies have been recovered.

“The district administration is making all possible efforts to rescue the missing people,” he said over telephone.

Officials said that the people boarded the truck to go to Amravati Mandal because the bus service in the region was suspended since the last two days due to rains and floods.

“When the lorry was negotiating the flooded Kondaveeti Vagu, flash floods washed the vehicle away,” said Lakshmi Narayana, who survived the mishap.

“We were stuck as there was no public transport in the area since the last two days and had to take the lorry to reach home,” he said.

The accident occurred at Narakullapadu, about 20 km away from Guntur city. Most of the victims are from Pedakurapadu mandal of the district.  The people travelling in the truck included 10 women and five children.

Guntur is among the ten districts, which have been affected by the heavy rains and floods over the last three days under influence of low pressure area in Bay of Bengal.

More bad news
The low pressure area in Bay of Bengal has now intensified in depression.

The Visakhapatanam Cyclone Warning Center said that the depression lay centred off the coast of Puri in Orissa. Heavy rains in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa since Friday were caused by the low pressure.

The weather office has warned that would be widespread rains in coastal Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana region over the next 36 hours. Due to the depression, which was moving in north-north westerly direction, there will be winds with a speed up to 45 to 55 km per hour.

Fishermen have been warned not to venture in to the sea.

Apart from Hyderabad and Krishna districts, deaths were reported from West Godavari (7), Guntur (5), Nalgonda (4), Medak (3), Visakhapatnam [ Images ] (2) and Warangal two. More deaths were reported from different places. Most of the deaths were either due to house collapse or flood.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy [ Images ], after reviewing the situation with the officials on Sunday, told media persons that the state government had opened 85 relief camps across the state and was providing the evacuated people with food and drinking water.

148 dead as floods batter Andhra and Karnataka

Stepping up rescue efforts, army troops backed by IAF helicopters on Saturday shifted marooned villagers perched on rooftops to safer areas as unprecedented floods left 148 dead in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

However, the situation in Andhra Pradesh’s worst-hit Kurnool and Mahboobnagar districts showed signs of easing with the water level in flooded areas receding while rains held off in most parts of Karnataka except in coastal areas and Bellary district.

Sixteen people were killed and over 4.5 lakh people evacuated as flood water inundated Andhra Pradesh’s five districts of Kurnool, Mahboobnagar, Guntur, Krishna and Nalgonda.

In adjacent Karnatka, heavy rains killed 132 people in the last six days and flooded 15 districts flattening more than one lakh houses.

Though the number of deaths in Andhra is 16, the toll is likely to go up once authorities access those areas which still remain cut off, Revenue Minister D Prasada Rao said.

Rescue personnel evacuated 1.5 lakh people in Kurnool district, 1.34 lakh people in Mahaboobnagar district, 15,000 people in Krishna district and 5,000 flood victims in Guntur district.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah said the situation in Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar districts improved with water levels receding.

The good news for Andhra Pradesh is that inflow of water in Srisailam dam, which has been releasing water, is likely to come down, which may provide relief to Kurnool district.

Massive rescue and relief operation are underway in the affected areas with seven helicopters, 550 army personnel and 165 personnel of National Disaster Response Force and 138 boats pressed into service.

The Revenue Minister said lakhs of food and water sachets and other relief material are being distributed to the flood victims in all the districts.

In Karnataka, the highest number of 28 deaths were registered in Bijapur followed by Raichur (19) and Koppal (18), Bagalkote and Gulbarga (13 each), Davanagere (nine), Uttarakand (five), Gadag (seven), Bellary (nine), Bidar (four) and Belgaum (seven) from Sept 28 to October 3, Home Minister V S Acharya said.

Fifteen districts have been impacted in varying degrees by the monsoon fury, he said, adding, the unprecedented rain in northern Karnataka has damaged 1,03,291 houses.

Rescue operations were on in full swing in Kadawada village in Uttara Kannada district where a major landslide buried eight houses. According to eyewitnesses, around 11-21 people were feared trapped.

Rains had abated to some extent except in coastal parts and Bellary district, he said.

The Indian Air Force evacuated 12 persons caught in neck-deep water in Bellary district while 32 marooned people were rescued from the temple town of Mantralaya in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district bordering Raichur in Karnataka.

Rail and rail transport were affected in the rain-hit districts of both the states.

The Indian Army has deployed around 700 troops along with eight medical teams and an engineer task force to carry out relief and rescue operations in the flood-affected districts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The Indian Air Force is also carrying out relief operations in the affected states as six helicopters were on Friday swung into action for evacuating people and dropping relief material, mainly food packets, in flood-hit areas.