Over 50 villages in Andhra Pradesh on either side of river Krishna were inundated as a record 11 lakh cusecs of water reached Prakasam Barrage today even as week-long rains showed signs of abating in north Karnataka but the death toll mounted to 194.
Many colonies along the left bank of
Krishna river in Vijayawada city got submerged as the flood level touched four feet this evening. The situation is expected to remain grim till Wednesday as the flood discharge at Prakasam Barrage will continue to be over 11 lakh cusecs, officials said.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi undertook an aerial survey of the ravaged areas in Bellary district and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who accompanied her, said the state suffered an unprecedented damage exceeding Rs. 20,000 crore.
Torrential rains left a trail of death and destruction in 15 districts of Karnataka damaging over two lakh houses in 1,467 villages subsided since yesterday.
Bijapur district bore the brunt of the rain fury with 31 deaths followed by Raichur and Bagalkote (26 each). Over 4.53 lakh people have been sheltered in 13,330 relief camps.
A 500 m-long bridge across Tungabhadra river, 32 km from Raichur, was washed away in flood waters, officials said.
The Krishna river experienced the heaviest flood since 1903, when it had 10.30 lakh cusecs of flood waters.
The water level touched 21.4 feet at Prakasam Barrage and all the 72 crest gates have been lifted to let out water into Bay of Bengal. Irrigation authorities said the current flood discharge at Nagarjuna Sagar has been reduced to 10.3 lakh cusescs from 11 lakh cusecs on October 4.