Hyderabad/Bangalore, Oct 3 (Inditop.com) The flood situation in Andhra Pradesh Saturday remained grim with swollen rivers threatening to submerge Kurnool town even as water levels receded in neighbouring Karnataka.
Army helicopters dropped thousands of food packets to the marooned people in the two states where torrential rains have led to flash floods that have killed over 100 people in Karnataka and 30 in Andhra Pradesh.
Most deaths took place when people were washed away in flood waters or when houses collpased in rural areas.
Besides Kurnool, which has a population of about 500,000, Vijayawada city was also in danger of inundation due to then swollen Krishna river.
Thousands of people in Kurnool, about 250 km from Hyderabad, have spent the last three days in darkness and without food and water.
The authorities Friday night asked people to evacuate the entire town as the water level in Srisailam dam crossed the danger mark.
But those trapped on the first or second floors of various buildings could not venture out with five-six feet of water on the ground.
In Karnataka, three days of downpour in seven of the state’s 29 districts has affected around 15 lakh (1.5 million) people.
But the situation was getting better — slowly.
“Since 11 a.m. today (Saturday), the water level in many areas has started receding. People who had taken refuge on rooftops can now come down,” state disaster monitoring authority secretary H.V. Parashwanath told Inditop.
“Six helicopters and 40 boats are engaged in rescue operations in the worst affected districts of Bijapur, Bellary, Raichur, Gadag and Bagalkot,” he said.
Parashwanath said “another 20 boats will be deployed Saturday and we have sought about 100 inflatable boats from Gujarat”.
He said rain in north Karnataka is likely to subside as clouds were moving towards coastal Karnataka.
“Meterological officials have told us that coastal areas may receive heavy rains in the next 48 hours.” The coastal districts are Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada.
The number of dead in Karnataka has gone up to 101, Parashwanath said. But unofficial reports put the figure at around 140.
In Hyderabad, officials said the army, navy and Indian Air Force would now begin rescue and relief work from bases in Bangalore, Tirupati or Puttaparthi.
The personnel of Disaster Management Response Force are reaching Kurnool with boats.
The worst floods in the region in 100 years have left a trail of destruction, rendering over 200,000 homeless in Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Guntur and Krishna districts and damaging crops over a vast area.
Officials said 30 people were killed during the last three days of heavy rain under the influence of a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal. But the figure could rise sharply as hundreds of people are reported missing in about 100 villages in the worst-hit Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts.
The water level in Srisailam Saturday morning was 895 feet, 10 feet above its full reservoir level. The inflow is 1.75 million cusecs of water while the outflow is 1.35 million cusecs.
It is not just the Srisailam dam which is posing a threat of submergence to Kurnool. The flood waters from Tungabhadra and Handri rivers have added to the misery of people in the town, which was the first capital of Andhra state from 1953 to 1956.
The temple town of Mantralayam in Kurnool district is under water while flood waters from the Kondu river are threatening another town Nandyal, about 100 km from Kurnool.
With heavy inflows at Nagarjuna Sagar dam and at Prakasam barrage, Vijayawada city and other parts of Krishna and Guntur districts were facing threat of inundation. Authorities continued evacuation of people from low-lying area in and around Vijayawada through Friday night.
Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, who spent the night at the state secretariat along with several ministers and top officials, told reporters that rescue and relief operations would be taken up on a massive scale.
He said the helicopters would also drop food and drinking water packets in the affected areas. About 600,000 food packets were prepared for air drop in Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts.
Rosaiah appealed to Karnataka and Maharashtra governments not to release water from the dams across the Krishna river in their respective states as this could add to the woes of Andhra Pradesh.
Rail and road communications remained parlaysed for the fourth day Saturday. Heavy downpour was reported from coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada.
