The Hindu : Front Page : Storm batters coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 29, 2005

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Storm batters coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema

Special Correspondent

At least 12 dead in three districts, standing crops in lakhs of acres damaged, railway track washed away

Train services from Chennai to the North and the East disrupted
An average of 21 cm of rainfall recorded in Nellore district

20,000 people shifted to relief camps

FLOOD FURY: A goods train from Chennai derailed near the Bitragunta station in Nellore in Andhra Pradesh after flash floods washed away a stretch of the track on Friday. — Photo: Ramesh Babu

HYDERABAD: Large swathes of land in south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema region were inundated as a cyclonic storm battered the coastal areas on Friday. As the storm crossed the coast near Ongole, it left at least 12 people dead in house collapses and drowning in Chittoor, Nellore and Kadapa districts. Standing crop in lakhs of acres were damaged. Hyderabad, the State capital, received intermittent rainfall.

Train services from Chennai to the North and the East were disrupted when a flash flood washed away a portion of the track at Tettu near the Bitragunta railway station in Nellore district. Three bogies of a Chennai-bound goods train capsized as the bridge collapsed. As a result, several trains bound for Chennai from various parts of the country were either cancelled or diverted via Guntur and Nandyal.

An average of 21 cm of rainfall was recorded in the rice-rich Nellore district, with Allur receiving 39 cm on a single day.

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