The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Death toll rises to 96

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Death toll rises to 96

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, DEC. 27. The death toll in the tidal wave that crashed against the State's coast rose to 96 as more bodies were recovered on Monday.

As more boats returned to the shore, the number of missing persons came down to 99. This, however, does not take into account those missing in Prakasam, East and West Godavari districts where figures were not available.

Toll break-up

Giving the break-up of the death toll, the Relief Commissioner, Ashutosh Misra, told reporters on Monday that Krishna recorded the highest number of casualties with 35, followed by Prakasam 27, Nellore 12, Guntur 10, West Godavari eight and East Godavari four.

At least 535 houses were fully damaged with Nellore accounting for 480, Guntur 19, Krishna and West Godavari 18 each. The figures for Prakasam were not available. Only five houses were partly damaged in Srikakulam.

Mr. Misra said the south coastal districts of Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur and Krishna suffered the brunt of the seismic activity in the sea. East and West Godavari districts also faced severe damage but the north coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam were not affected much.

The Commissioner said 1.30 lakh families of fishermen along the 933 km. coast from Nellore to Srikakulam were affected. As many as 8,337 boats and crafts were lost or damaged causing a loss of Rs. 8.35 crores. The fishermen incurred an additional loss of Rs. 16.59 crores by way of loss of equipment, including nets.

Search operations

Four helicopters and ships of the Coast Guard carried out search operations on the sea throughout the day for missing persons. As a quake of 6.3 magnitude on the Richter scale was recorded in the Andaman Islands on Monday, the Government sounded an alert along the coast till Tuesday. The relief operations and also the camps where 34,264 people are sheltered will continue for some time.

ENC deploys ships

The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) intensified relief and rescue operations on Monday. More ships were deployed, loaded with large quantities of relief material comprising drinking water, essential provisions including ready-to-eat food items, and clothing like blankets, durries and bedsheets. Medical teams with essential medicines were also on board of all ships.

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