The town of Nellore is in deep waters quite literally as massive inundation of colonies, apartment blocks, arterial roads and bylanes occurred after it received a staggering rainfall of 86 cm in the last four days.
The death toll in rain-related incidents in the three districts of Andhra Pradesh now stands at 35.
A Times of India report adds:
With 60 per cent of the residential areas engulfed in water, people are being shifted to relief camps in boats by NDRF personnel. Flood waters reached a height of 12 ft in some colonies and even entered flats located on the first floor. Flood water towering at 15 ft was seen at the railway underbridge near Magunta Layout area, prompting the authorities to close the railway bridge. SBI Colony , JVR Colony , Ramnagar and Vengalarao Nagar, which are located close to the Swarnala Cheruvu (the biggest tank in the city), are under sheets of water.
Filthy water is also overflowing in several colonies as the contents of many drains have started floating on the street, the report adds.
Claiming that the rain caused losses worth Rs 3,000 crore, a report in The Hindu adds:
As many as 467 houses were completely damaged, and 2,029 were partially damaged. Over two lakh hectares of agriculture and horticulture crops were affected, and more than 550 irrigation tanks and channels were damaged. More than 1,800 km road under the Roads and Buildings and Panchayat Raj departments were damaged. National Highway-16 suffered a huge breach at Manabolu near Gudur, disrupting traffic from Nellore to Chennai, besides cutting off link between the Nellore district headquarters and the Gudur Revenue Division.
Meanwhile, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday sounded an SOS to prime minister Narendra Modi, seeking an immediate release of Rs 1,000 crore for use for relief and restoration operations in the rain-affected districts in the state, The New Indian Express reported.
Naidu is also reported to have requested Modi to act generously and said that a final report on the extent of damage would be sent to him once the enumeration is over.
Coast Guard Station Krishnapatnam rescues 13 persons from flood affected areas of Nellore, AP. pic.twitter.com/PDdv0V4VB5
— Sitanshu Kar (@SpokespersonMoD) November 19, 2015
Indian Coast Guard rescues 13 people in Nellore district. #ChennaiRains #ChennaiFloods pic.twitter.com/XsPJPyUGJy
— Pinky Rajpurohit (@Madrassan) November 18, 2015
Glimpses from CM's aerial survey of flood-affected areas of Nellore and Chittoor Districts. pic.twitter.com/62k6iuGRIS
— Andhra Pradesh CM (@AndhraPradeshCM) November 18, 2015
Nellore cyclone clouds https://t.co/NhM0CU24Fu via @YouTube
— Prasada Rao Guduru (@gpraoindia) November 20, 2015