South India is reeling under floods.
Heavy rain and surging flood waters continued to batter Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, claiming at least 194 lives and inundating vast swathes of land. The death toll in both the states is likely to go up.
Also See: Images: Floods in Andhra Pradesh
Also See: Images: Floods in Karnataka
The floods have also rendered nearly two million people homeless as authorities battled to reach food and shelter for them. Rescue efforts were stepped up with troops backed by IAF helicopters shifting marooned people in both the states to safer areas.
While 161 people perished in the heavy rains that lashed 15 districts of Karnataka, 33 people were killed in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh whose five districts were hit by the flash flood affecting more than 18 lakh people.
The death count in both the states is likely to mount as many people in flood-hit areas have gone missing in Andhra Pradesh and between 11 and 21 persons were feared buried under mounds following landslide in a hillock at Kadawada village in Uttara Kannada where two bodies have been recovered, officials said.
The Army has deployed around 700 troops along with eightmedical teams and an engineer task force to carry out relief and rescue operations in the flood-affected districts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Destruction in Andhra Pradesh
The Andhra Pradesh government is conducting rescue and relief operations with 15 helicopters, some of them from the Army, and over 150 boats, Chief Minister Rosaiah said. Around 550 army personnel and 165 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were involved in the rescue and relief efforts, he said.
Rosaiah said the government was trying to provide basic facilities to flood victims by air-dropping food packets, water sachets, essential medicines and bleaching powder.
Passengers stranded as train-bus services cancelled
Hundreds of passengers heading for Bangalore were left stranded as road and rail transport services between the two cities came to a standstill due to flood situation in Andhra Pradesh. Over 300 buses including state-owned RTC buses were cancelled today on Hyderabad-Kurnool and Hyderabad-Mantralayam routes following overflowing of bridges between Hyderabad-Kurnool, officials said.
Hundreds of IT sector employees from Hyderabad and other parts of Andhra Pradesh working in Bangalore who had come down for weekend holidays, were forced to stay back in view of cancellation of buses and train services.
The South Central Railway (SCR) has also cancelled 18 trains and diverted 29 other trains due to overflowing of water on two bridges between Guntkal and Wadi (near Mantralayam and Raichur) on Guntkal division and Tungabhadra bridge between Alampur and Kurnool town in Hyderabad division.
The trains cancelled today include Vijayawada-Hubli express, Bangalore-Bhubneswar express and Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Garibrath express. Fourteen express trains cancelled for tomorrow are; Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Garibrath express, Kacheguda-Bangalore express, Bangalore-Kacheguda express, Hyderabad-Tirupati, Tirupati-Hyderabad, Kacheguda-Yeswanthapur express, Yaswathapur-Kacheguda express, Tirupti-Kolhapur express, Kolhapur-Tirupati, Bangalore-Nanded Link Express, Nanded-Bangalore, Yeswanthapur-Bangalore-Yeswanthapur and Vijayawada-Yeswanthapur passenger.
The unprecedented inflow of river Krishna at the Srisailam dam in Kurnool district has broken all the past records as it touched a peak of 25 lakh cusecs on Friday evening.
"The inflow was 25 lakh cusecs and discharge was 14.2 lakh cusecs which is an all-time record", said Rosaiah. He pointed the previous highest inflow in to the dam was 9.7 lakh cusecs in 1967.
Images: A picture from Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh (top). A scene from Hubli district in Karnataka (bottom).
Photographs: Snaps India & KPN Photos
