The death toll in the incessant rains battering all the three regions of Andhra Pradesh in the past five days touched 32 on Saturday, and with the weatherman forecasting more rains in the next 48 hours, the situation is only likely to get worse.

An official at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) told Arab News that besides the 29 deaths, two persons were also missing from Visakapatnam district. The rain-related deaths were reported from the districts of Prakasam (six), Guntur (5), Mahabubnagar (four), Hyderabad and Kurnool (three each), Vizianagaram, East Godavari, Nalgonda and Warangal (2 each), he said.

The magnitude of the situation following floods can be gauged from the fact that 72,000 people had to be evacuated from low-lying areas to 178 relief camps in nine districts. As many as 15,000 houses were damaged in the heavy downpour in the past five days which also damaged crops spread over 564,000 hectares, he said, adding that in all, 4040 villages in 16 districts were badly affected by the heavy downpour. Besides, 405 minor irrigation tanks were damaged and 555 heads of cattle also perished in the floods.

Several teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are involved in rescue and relief operations in Srikakulam, West Godavari, Prakasam, Guntur, Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar districts, official sources said.

Hundreds of villages across Andhra Pradesh continued to remain submerged, while road and rail routes were affected as the rain fury continued on Saturday. Traffic movement on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad Highway was badly affected with long stretches of the crucial road submerged in floodwaters.

The railway track at Bommayipalli on the Secunderabad-Guntur section was damaged and repairs were being carried out. All important trains on this route are being diverted via Warangal and Vijayawada, official sources said, adding that the East Coast Railway canceled four express trains — the Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru Prasanthi Express, Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Express, Puri-Tirupati Express and Coromandel Express – following heavy flooding of tracks en route.

River Krishna is in spate following which 315,000 cusecs of water was being discharged into the Bay of Bengal from Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who held a high-level review meeting with his cabinet colleagues and top officials, instructed officials from various departments to take up rescue, relief and restoration works on a war-footing.

The chief minister asked them to accord top priority to repair and restoration of minor irrigation tanks in the state.