Heavy rain and flood hit AP, UP

Heavy rains in the last 24 hours has claimed nine lives in Andhra Pradesh, while floods and overflowing rivers in Uttar Pradesh has displaced thousands of people and caused damages to crops and livestock. Among the AP districts, Karimnagar reported five deaths, Khammam two and Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad one each. The state government has put district administration in coastal region and Telangana on high alert, after the met department forecast heavy rains for the next 48 hours. Reservoirs in the state including the Hussainsagar here are filling, while other seasonal streams are flowing near danger mark. Few villages in the Bhadrachalam division in Khammam, besides areas in Adilabad and Nizambad districts, are inundated. Heavy rains also hit coal production in the open cast mine area in Adilabad-Karimnagr area. Production up to 10,000 tonnes is said to have been affected. Meanwhile, rains that lashed Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours has posed further danger to several regions. Major rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Sharda, Betwa, Kuano, Rapti and Ghaghra were rising all along their course, according the sources here. Ganga was rising at Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur and Ballia while Yamuna was also rising at Allahabad. Flood waters of swollen Sharda rivers have inundated large tracts of land in Lakhimpur-Kheri and forced thousands of people to shift to safer areas, while situation was alarming in Gonda district where Ghaghra river was flowing 32 cm above the danger mark. Aligarh district in the state received 25 mm rainfall in the past 24-hour while there was also report of rains in Agra, Sultanpur, Jhansi and Bareilly. The Met office has predicted more rains in the next 48 hours. Companies of the provincial arms constabulary (PAC) have been pressed into service at many places to rescue marooned people. At least 13 districts of the state had been badly hit by the floods, officials said. Deccan Herald