Hyderabad, October 06: Andhra Pradesh is gearing for more floods as a swollen Krishna river inundated parts of Vijayawada city and threatened to swamp hundreds of villages
Rescue workers used sandbags to stop a raging river from breaching its embankment near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh yesterday as floods triggered by heavy rains over the last week left 2.5mn people homeless.
The flooding, described by officials as the worst in many decades in south India, has killed some 250 people, mostly in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. At least 5mn people are crammed in temporary government shelters.
Flood waters swamped millions of acres of cropland, including sugarcane plantations, prompting worries of a fall in sugar output in Karnataka, the country’s third-biggest producer.
Traders also estimated the flooding would hit corn output by at least 1mn tonnes in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which account for about 35% of India’s total corn production.
Officials said 300,000 heavy sandbags were being used to fortify weakening embankments of the Krishna river that flows close to Vijayawada, a city of about 1mn people and an important trading centre.
Rescue workers also moved more than 200,000 people living close to the river. An alert had been sounded in about 100 villages situated along the Krishna.
“These are the worst floods in 100 years,” said Dharmana Prasada Rao, Andhra Pradesh’s minister for revenue and relief.
“There is 3 to 4ft water in some areas in Vijayawada city and this may go up to 6 to 7ft later. We have already moved out of the area near the river,” Suresh Kumar, a resident, said.
Relief officials used helicopters and boats to drop off rations and plastic sheets to hundreds of marooned villagers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Officials and relief agencies said flood victims were now sheltered in over 1,200 temporary camps. They included about 2.5mn people from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh who have lost their homes.
H V Parashwanath, a Karnataka disaster management official overseeing relief operations, said that some 2mn people had been made homeless in the state.
Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi and federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram inspected the devastation.
Officials said vast areas of agricultural land, including sugarcane and paddy fields, were under water in the state.
“About two-thirds of the 54 sugar mills in the state have been forced to delay crushing by a week to 10 days as cane fields are submerged,” Govind Reddy, a secretary of the Southern Indian Sugar Mills Association, said in Bangalore.
The two states have sought immediate central assistance of Rs160bn.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart K Rosaiah presented separate memorandums to Gandhi after she visited the two states to see the trail of destruction.
Gandhi is reported to have assured the two chief ministers of all possible central help.
–Agencies–