Floods claim three lives in AP

Hyderabad, Aug 3 (UNI) Three persons were killed as heavy rains lashed North Coastal Andhra Pradesh under the influence of a depression, throwing normal life out of gear and disrupting road as well as air traffic in the coastal region.

Monitoring the situation from Chennai, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who had left there to take part in a CII conference, directed Chief Secretary J Harinarayana and Disaster Management Commissioner Debabratha Kanta to closely monitor the situation and take up relief and rehabilitation measures.

Talking to UNI here today, Hyderabad Meteorological Department Director M Satyakumar said heavy to very heavy falls at a few places, with isolated extremely heavyfalls (more than 25 cm) were likely over north Coastal Andhra Pradesh during next 24 hours.

Major rivers in the region including Vamsadara and Nagavalli received heavy inflows from Orissa as the deep depression over northwest Bay of Bengal crossed south Orissa coast between Puri and Gopalpur this morning. The worst-hit Srikakulam district, which received 17 to 18 CM rainfall, accounted for the three deaths.

Air services to Coastal Andhra cities of Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and Vijayawada were disrupted.

Two Air Deccan flights failed to land at Madhurupudi airport in Rajahmundry due to heavy rains and poor visibility, a Vijayawada report said.

The air services from and to the eastal port city of Visakhapatnam was cancelled as water entered the runway, officials said.

For the first time in this Monsoon Season, a whopping 5.16 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from the Srisailam Reservoir, the lifeline of Andhra Pradesh in view of heavy inflows from the reservoirs across the river Krishna in the upper riparian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

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