It was yet another day of suffering and woes for the people across Andhra Pradesh and Odisha as heavy rain continued to lash the two States taking the toll to 48 till Saturday.
Three persons were killed in heavy rain in south Bengal with normal life thrown out of gear in Kolkata and adjacent districts.
The unabated rain in several districts of Andhra Pradesh over the past five days have left a trail of destruction, claiming 32 lives and causing damage to crops and infrastructure worth hundreds of crores of rupees. With a warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next 48 hours, officials fear the devastation could only increase. In Odisha, at least 16 people have died in flood-related incidents, and the situation remains grim even as major rivers were receding on Saturday.
Road links in Andhra were cut off due to the flooding at many places. The highway between Hyderabad and Vijayawada is almost submerged in floodwaters. Many residential areas of Vijayawada and several areas of East and West Godavari districts are also inundated.
Officials said that standing crops over an area of 5 lakh acre was damaged by the rain and floods in 15 districts. More than 70,000 people have been shifted to relief camps and other safe places.
Apart from agriculture sector, irrigation tanks and the roads were the other badly affected sectors. Though Hyderabad city did not suffer from unrelenting rain on Saturday, some of the colonies, specially in Saroornagar and Dilsukhnagar, were flooded forcing the residents to move out to safer places. P&T Colony and Singareni Colony in Saroornagar were the worst affected.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy directed the Collectors to distribute ex-gratia to the kin of those killed in rain-related incidents in the last three days and ensure supply of essential commodities to displaced people. Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced three-day relief for the affected as per provisions under the Relief Code.