Hyderabad/Vijayawada, Sep 2: Torrential downpour in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh left 31 persons dead, battered roads and rail tracks snapping connectivity, submerged thousands of acres of agricultural crops and left people scampering for daily needs as rescue agencies were pressed into rescue and rehabilitation efforts.
The two Telugu speaking states were reeling under the impact of the rains on Monday, as 16 persons were killed in Telangana and 15 others in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which particularly bore the brunt of the rain fury.
A portion of gravel under the railway track near Kesamudram in Telangana was washed away due to floodwaters.
Nearly 4.5 lakh people were affected in Andhra, even as heart-wrenching scenes of people struggling to ensure essentials, including milk were witnessed in the worst affected Vijayawada. The most affected districts included NTR, Guntur, Krishna, Eluru, Palnadu, Bapatla and Prakasam, said an official press release.
Twenty SDRF and 19 NDRF teams are engaged in relief and rescue operations.
Life was completely thrown out of gear in Vijayawada following torrential downpour over the past three days and with more than 24 hours of power cuts in several parts of the city.
Visuals aired on local TV news channels showed a woman lamenting to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that people were stranded for two days in Ajit Singh Nagar in Vijayawada without drinking water. She complained no boat came to their rescue while another man standing in waist deep waters begged Naidu, who was touring the flood-affected areas for the third time on a boat, to understand their predicament.
People were seen wading through floodwaters carrying their children on shoulders to safety while an old woman lying on a mattress was seen being shifted over floodwaters by two persons.
Some people tried to help themselves through the deluge using a rope.
As people waded through the floodwaters, a few of them held on to some basic necessities in their hands and a large queue was formed at one of the flood-affected places to collect milk sachets and food packets. (PTI)
