Vijayawada/Bangalore: The flood situation
on Tuesday eased in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which were swamped by torrential rains since last week by the receding monsoon
but the toll mounted to 252 with more bodies being found.
There was let up in the rains in the past two days in
Karnataka giving some respite to the flood victims, large
numbers of whom were now lodged in transit camps.
Three more bodies were found in Karnataka - two from
Chikkaballapura district and one from Karwar in Uttara Kannada
district - where a landslide had occurred last week, taking
the toll to 197, officials said in Bangalore.
Around 2.5 lakh houses have either collapsed or
damaged by the torrential rains with as many as 1.8 crore
people badly hit.
With the floods subsiding, the state machinery is now
concentrating on relief work. The state government has set up
more than 1,200 rehabilitation centres and over 3.5 lakh rain
and flood affected people are being provided food and
temporary shelter.
The state has demanded Rs 16,500 crore from the Centre
for relief and rehabilitation works.
In Andhra Pradesh, the situation also showed signs of
improvement but reports of flood-related deaths continued to
pour in with the official toll standing at 55.
Over 15.75 lakh people continued to reel under the impact
of floods that have submerged large areas of human habitation
and caused severe damaged crops in the five districts of
Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Krishna, Guntur and Nalgonda.
Over 3,59,799 flood victims have taken shelter in 277
relief camps, officials sources said.
The water level in Prakasam Barrage, which has been
hit by the worst-ever floods in over a 100 years, stood at
21.8 feet. The inflow stood at the barrage was 10.97 lakh
cusecs while outflow was 10.8 lakh cusecs.
The water levels at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar Dams
this afternoon stood at 892.40 feet (Full Reservoir Level
885 feet) and 587.1 feet (Full Reservoir Level 590 feet)
respectively and were receding. The outflow was recorded at
six lakh cusecs and 6.59 lakh cusecs respectively.
The state government has demanded an interim aid of Rs
6,000 crore from the Centre.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi along with Home Minister
P Chidambaram had yesterday undertaken an aerial survey of the
flood-hit districts to take stock of the situation.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, October 06, 2009, 16:23