Thaindian News

Hyderabad, Oct 3 (IANS) The flood situation in Andhra Pradesh Saturday continued to be alarming with Kurnool town facing threat of complete submergence while Vijayawada city is also in danger of inundation due flooding in the Krishna river.
In complete darkness and without food and water for the last two days, thousands of people in Kurnool town, about 250 km from here, spent another night on roof-tops waiting for help.

Though the authorities had Friday night asked people to evacuate the entire town of about 500,000 people as water level in Srisailam dam crossed the danger mark, those trapped on first or second floors of various buildings could not venture out due to five to six feet of water on the ground.

Officials said the army, navy and Indian Air Force would now begin rescue and relief works from bases in Bangalore, Tirupati or Puttaparthi. The personnel of Disaster Management Response Force are also 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 standing 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 on 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 remained under water while flood waters from the Kondu river are threatening another town Nandyal, about 100 km from Kurnool town.

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 state secretariat along with several ministers and top officials to monitor the situation, told reporters Saturday that the 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 dropping in Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts.

Rosaiah appealed to Karnataka and Maharashtra governments not to release water from the dams across Krishna river in their respective states as this could add to the woes of flood-hit Andhra Pradesh.