Heavy monsoon rains and floods kill at least 33 in Andhra, Telangana
People wade through a flooded road after heavy rains in Vijayawada, India, on Sept. 2, 2024.
Heavy monsoon rains and floods have killed at least 33 people in Andhra Pradesh over the past two days, authorities said Tuesday.
In India’s Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, houses collapsed and were swept away by torrential downpours while floods disrupted road and rail traffic, officials said. The weather service issued a red alert for 11 districts, predicting more rains in the region, Telangana’s top bureaucrat, Shanta Kumari, said.
More than 4,000 people have been moved to 110 government-run relief camps in Telangana since Monday, according to the state’s top elected official, A. Revanth Reddy.
Overflowing lakes, tanks and streams have cut off some villages in Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts.
Vijayawada, the commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh, is experiencing the worst flooding in two decades with the Budameru River flooding 40% of the city and stranding nearly 275,000 people in more than a dozen residential area.
Disaster relief teams are struggling to transport stranded families to safter areas, said Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Since June, at least 170 people have died across India’s six north-eastern states due to floods and mudslides brought on by the rains, according to official figures.
Flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed five children on Monday in southwestern part of Pakistan Occupied Balochistan. In Pakistan too overall death toll from rain-related incidents have been at least 300 since July 1.
The five deaths were reported in the Zhob and Khuzdar districts, according to a statement by the disaster management authority. In Occupied Balochistan alone, floods have killed 32 people, including 18 children and 12 women over the past two months.
The deluges have also inundated dozens of villages and blocked highways in parts of Occupied Balochistan, and damaged nearly 20,000 homes across the country, mostly in Occupied Balochistan.
Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in both India and Pakistan Occupied during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists and weather forecasters have blamed climate change for heavier rains in recent years.
In 2022, climate-induced downpours inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people and causing INR 255000 Crores in damage.
