Heavy rains and flash floods caused by a depression that crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast on Friday claimed a total of 28 lives, including 15 in worst-affected Kurnool district.

Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, who returned to Hyderabad cutting short his visit to New Delhi, told media persons that the situation continued to be serious in several districts where low lying areas were inundated, disrupting vehicular, rail and air traffic and snapping electricity and communication lines. 

Dr Reddy said that Nandyal town has been completely cut off as flood waters from Kundu River inundated the low-lying areas.

As many as 15 persons lost their lives in Kurnool district. He said that the district authorities moved the people from low-lying areas to safer places and lodged them in relief camps. One lakh food packets were supplied in Kurnool district. He said that helicopters would be deployed on Saturday morning for air-dropping food packets.

The chief minister asked the state officials to keep the Army and Navy on alert to meet any eventuality. He said that the flood situation was grim in Kurnool district where Kundu River received about 1 lakh cusecs of flood waters. Relief camps were opened at
several places.

In Ongole town in Prakasam district, the situation continued to be serious as water entered low-lying areas. In Macherla town in Guntur district also, low-lying areas were inundated.       

Many towns and villages in coastal Andhra as well as Kurnool and Anantapur districts in interior Rayalaseema region were inundated as rivulets, streams and irrigation tanks were overflowing due to incessant rains in the last 24 hours.

Heavy rains, accompanied by strong winds with a speed of 45 to 55 km per hour, hit the coastal areas of the state under the impact of a deep depression that crossed the coast near Kakinada town on Friday morning.

The deep depression moved westwards and lay centred at 5.30 pm over Telangana, about 50 km southeast of Hyderabad. The system is likely to move in a west-northwesterly direction and weaken gradually.

Under its influence, widespread rains with very heavy falls were reported over Telangana, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region. Fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls is likely over south coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions during the next 48 hours.

The heavy rains caused widespread devastation in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur districts, throwing normal life out of gear, uprooting trees and communication and electricity towers.

Officials said that scores of passengers who were stranded in buses and trains as roads and railway tracks were submerged at several places in Kurnool, Guntur, Anantapur and Chittoor districts were rescued.

Heavy duty crane was deployed to rescue 35 passengers of a RTC bus caught in floodwaters near Orvakallu in Kurnool district when Kundu River inundated the highway. Seven passengers were also rescued from a bus by local authorities in Thambalapalle in Chittoor district.  

The Railways have cancelled several trains as the tracks were flooded in Kurnool and Anantapur districts. Passengers of Guntur-Hubli fast passenger train, who were stranded as waters surrounded the train, were rescued by the authorities. Rains also hit air services to the port city of Visakhapatnam [Images].

Several airlines, including Indian, Air Deccan, Paramount and Kingfisher, cancelled their flights due to poor visibility.