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Storm fury: India battered, US braces
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-22 06:21
The Godavari and Krishna rivers were flowing above the danger mark and had breached their banks in several places, flooding fields and farms along their banks.
Indian villagers wade through floodwaters in the village of Koralampeta,some 300 kilometres southeast of Hyderabad, yesterday as they flee rising waters caused by storms in the Bay of Bengal. [AFP] |
At least 81,000 hectares of tobacco, rice and vegetables were damaged or washed away by surging flood waters, said Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the state's top elected official.
"We will have a full picture of the crop losses only after the water recedes," Reddy said yesterday.
Sections of the major highways linking coastal towns to Hyderabad were submerged, leaving hundreds of trucks, buses and cars stranded.
The missing Bangladeshi fishermen were reported after more than 200 fishing trawlers capsized in turbulent waves in the Bay of Bengal after setting sail from the southern Bangladesh coast three days ago.
Rita upgraded to powerful Category 4
MIAMI: Hurricane Rita was upgraded yesterday to a Category 4 storm as it headed across the Gulf of Mexico on a course that could take it to Texas and dump more rain on Katrina-battered Louisiana.
Rita's winds increased to 193-kph as it headed into the Gulf. The storm grazed the Florida Keys but did not get close enough to reach the vulnerable chain of islands with its most destructive forces.
Some 130,000 people were evacuated in Cuba, on the southern side of the Florida Straits. The storm churned up rolling waves and soaked the northern coast as it made its way past Havana in the late afternoon.
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