Kiran Kumar Reddy reviews situation in Andhra after heavy rains

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy reviewed the situation caused due to heavy rains at a high-level meeting here today and directed the administration to carry out relief works on a war-footing.

With heavy to very heavy rains forecast for the next 24 hours, the Chief Minister asked the administration to be alert and take all necessary measures to provide relief to affected people.

The deluge caused by unabated rains in Andhra Pradesh during the last four days took a toll of 20 persons and damaged crops in 4.34 lakh hectares, besides paralysing normal life, official sources said.

More than 68,000 people in the coastal districts of Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Prakasam were evacuated from their homes and moved to 135 emergency relief camps set up by their respective district administrations.

Ten National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams reached the rain-ravaged districts and are engaged in relief operations.

The average rainfall in various parts of the state ranged between 4cm and 26cm in the past 24 hours.

Hundreds of houses were damaged in many districts not only in coastal Andhra but also in Telangana, rendering scores of people shelterless.

Rivers are in spate while drains and tanks are overflowing, leaving towns and villages inundated.

"The situation is very grim as the entire Delta area is completely inundated. Drains and tanks are overflowing and there is a threat of breaches occurring at some places because of the nonstop rain," Guntur district Collector S Suresh Kumar told PTI.

Six lift-irrigation scheme workers who were stuck in flood at Chilakaluripet and Yedlapadu since yesterday were rescued today with the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel, the collector said.