The heaviest flood in over a 100 years today hit the Prakasam Barrage on Krishna River threatening several villages downstream even as the toll due to heavy rains and rampaging floods in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra climbed to 240.

River Krishna virtually turned into a sea in all its fury as a record 10.61 lakh cusecs of flood water reached Prakasam Barrage. This is the heaviest flood in river Krishna in more than 106 years as the previous record stands at 10.30 lakh cusecs in 1903, irrigation authorities said in Vijayawada.

The water level touched 21.4 feet at Prakasam Barrage and all the 72 sluice gates have been lifted to let out water into Bay of Bengal. While Karnataka accounted for 178 deaths following recovery of 10 more bodies in northern and coastal regions of the state, Andhra Pradesh registered 37 deaths while Maharashtra 25. Over two lakh homes have been washed away in the three states where the receding monsoon has caused extensive damage to crops.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Floods in Southern India Kill Over 200 (online.wsj.com)
• Medical teams rush to flood-devastated southern India (ctv.ca)