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| Red Cross volunteers on scene as south east India is hit by a cyclone 18 October 2001 by Bijoy Patro in Delhi At least 38 people died when a cyclonic depression caused heavy rainfall and havoc in India's southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday. Thirty-eight people have been killed and another 23 are reported missing. The rainfall is said to be the region's heaviest in four years. Army helicopters were summoned to carry out relief operations in the coastal districts of Kurnool, Chittoor, Ananthapur, Cuddapah and Nellore. Cuddapah district is the worst affected in the state and completely submerged under water. A V Kotaiah, an official of the state branch of the Indian Red Cross, said that Red Cross volunteers were among the first on the scene to help restore normalacy in the flooded region even as communication was cut off as rivers and canals were breached at 242 points. Reports reaching New Delhi from Andhra Pradesh said that the national highway connecting the region to Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu state, was cut off. "The Nellore district branch of the Indian Red Cross responded as soon as it was possible to venture outdoors. Aid in the form of 10,000 food packets and 10,000 water packets each containing about 250 ml of water has been distributed. A medical relief team is visiting the affected areas to assess emergency health requirements," Kotaiah said. The heavy downpour disrupted normal life in coastal districts with Sullurpet and Gudur towns in Nellore district receiving 30 cm rainfall in 24 hours. Following the heavy downpour, four gates of a minor irrigation canal at Buggavanka were opened, resulting in the inundation of Cuddapah town and damage to several houses, according to official sources. The irrigation department has released 250,000 cusecs (one cubic foot per second) of water from the overflowing Somasila reservoir, the biggest in the region. About 400,000 cusecs of water had flowed into this reservoir by the time the downpour subsided. The national headquarters of the Indian Red Cross Society and the Andhra Pradesh state branch as well as district branches, are coordinating closely with the Senior Relief Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh state government. The Secretary General of the Indian Red Cross, Dr Vimla Ramalingam left for the cyclone affected state with nearly 4,500 US dollars from the organisation's emergency relief funds. People in the region are particularly vulnerable to disaster. Bob McKerrow, head of the Federation's South Asia Regional Delegation in New Delhi, had spent two years in the early 1980's overseeing a Red Cross Red Crescent disaster preparedness programme that involved the construction of cyclone shelters for the fishing communities in the district. He says, "one of the peculiarities of this area is the inland waterways and irrigation canals that fill very quickly at times of heavy rains and can overflow and damage crops and threaten human lives." The heavy rains that lashed Kurnool, Chittoor, Ananthapur, Cuddapah and Nellore districts, breached tanks, damaged roads and inundated low-lying areas in addition to uprooting trees and rail tracks while over 3,000 people were shifted to safer places over two days. |
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