Toll in rain fury mounts to 48, CM makes aerial survey

Hyderabad, Aug 5 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today made an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas as the toll in the torrential rains rose to 48 leaving a trail of destruction, rendering thousands homeless and disrupting road, rail and air services.

Promising to reconstruct all houses damaged in the flood fury under the ''Indira Awas Yojana'', the Chief Minister announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 each to the families of the deceased. The Visakhapatnam airport would be modernised at any cost within a year to prevent recurrence of flooding of the airport and disruption of air service, he told reporters in the port city.

Visakhapatnam, where air services continued to remain suspended for the third day today, accounted for a maximum of 13 deaths, followed by Vizianagaram (11), East Godavari (seven), Khammam (six), Hyderabad, Warangal and Srikakulam(three each) and Adilabad and Nalgonda (one each), Disaster Management Commissioner Debabratha Kanta told UNI.

Under the influence of the depression, the Telangana region would continue to experience heavy rains in the next 24 hours.

More than 60,000 people were evacuated as the river Godavari rose nine ft above the third danger level mark of 53 ft in the temple town of Bhadrachalam. A huge 23 lakh cusecs of water was discharged into the sea from the Dwaleswaram Barrage even as over five lakh cusecs of water was released by the upper riparian state of Maharashtra from Nanded.

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