37 die in Andhra floods

The unprecedented floods in Andhra Pradesh have so far claimed 37 lives in five districts – Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Krishna, Guntur and Nalgonda, according to official figures.

As many as 478 villages in 87 mandals have been severely affected by the floods, the worst-ever in the last 100 years. Of the over 1.38 million affected, 473,765 people have so far been evacuated from these five districts.

Government officials said 550 army personnel and 351 boats had been deployed for search and rescue operations, while 13 helicopters had been pressed into service to drop water and food packets and rescue people from inundated areas in these districts.

Chief minister K Rosaiah, while reviewing the flood situation and rehabilitation and rescue works in a high-level meeting on Sunday, said the government’s immediate concern was to rehabilitate the flood victims.

“We are chalking out a comprehensive action plan for helping the people in the flood-affected districts. The government will now focus on reconstruction works, repairing of damaged roads and restoration of power and communication facilities in the flood-hit areas,” the chief minister said, adding the floods had caused extensive damage to electrical installations and equipment of APTransco and discoms in Kurnool, Mahabubnagar and Krishna districts.

As the railway track between Kurnool town and Alampur has been restored, the South Central Railway (SCR) on Sunday resumed six trains from Hyderabad and Secunderabad to Bangalore city, Yeshwantpur, Chittoor, Egmore, Kurnool, Tirupati and Tirupati Express to Kolhapur.

The SCR had cancelled eight trains including the New Delhi-Bangalore City express, Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Garibrath express, Bangalore-Nanded Link Express and Bagalkot-Yeshwantpur Express, besides diverting 14 others.

Meanwhile, the Apollo Hospitals Group said it had relevant medications worth Rs 25 lakh ready to be sent to the affected areas. “The first relief operation started in Mahabubnagar district today. Four medical teams are currently working in the district under the guidance of the district collector. These four teams are carrying medications worth Rs 5 lakh and will be positioned in Mahabubnagar for the next 7 to 10 days,” the company said.

Additional teams have been kept ready to proceed to Kurnool district and these teams with additional stocks of medications will leave for Kurnool once the district administration completes the evacuation phase and moves into the relief and rehabilitation phase. Similar teams from Apollo hospitals in Kakinada and Visakhapatnam are in standby for relief and rehab operations in Krishna and Guntur districts, it said in a release.