During the heavy rains through the week here and other regions of Tamil Nadu not only inflatable boats, but preparedness, determination and presence of mind came in handy for personnel including policemen and women, civic and forest workers who rescued people, animals and snakes.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish at the loss of lives in Uttarakhand and noted that rescue operations are underway to help the affected.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the National Disaster Management Authority to apprise it within two weeks about the status of rescue operations in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand.
The Centre said that there was no legal provision to declare a disaster as a national calamity, amid demands for declaring the floods as a national disaster.
It said the authorities were making all efforts to save the lives of these persons and the Indian Navy and planes and helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been deployed in the rescue operation.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kangana Ranaut visited some cloudburst-affected areas in Rampur, in Shimla on Tuesday, taking stock of the situation.
Groups of relatives have gathered at the Tapovan tunnel, hoping that their loved ones will emerge alive from its mouth.
"I agree that the Ganga has caused loss, but there is profit in it as well," Lalu said.
Five people were killed and about 50 missing following several incidents of cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh where rains washed away many houses, bridges and roads, officials said on Thursday.
The flash flood, triggered by heavy rain, struck Shalan town in Ning'an city, submerging its low-lying primary school where 352 pupils and 31 teaching staff were staying.
Two teams of glaciologists will head to Joshimath-Tapovan on Monday to study the causes of massive flood caused after a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, the director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology said.
Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, was caught in a massive flood of unprecedented scale on Thursday, leaving hundreds of pilgrims stranded even as a heavy downpour under the influence of a depression in Bay of Bengal battered the temple-town Tirupati and many parts of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.
The staff and security personnel are performing their duties using mechanised and country boats to deal with any kind of eventualities, they said.
The focal point of the multi-agency rescue operation for the last over four days remains the more-than-1.5-km-long "head-race tunnel" of the total 2.5 km of the tubular structure, as every passing minute is mounting concerns over the safety of those trapped inside.
Deputy Secretary (Relief) Upendra Sharma said one Indian Air Force chopper and a column of the army comprising around 60 men with motorboats were pressed into service Saturday morning to provide relief and evacuate people.
Helicopter Pilot Wing Commander Deepika Misra rescued 47 people in an operation that lasted 8 days in flood-ravaged Madhya Pradesh.
Many elderly villagers said it was for the first time in their decades-old life that they were seeing and experiencing such severe rainfall.
The Supreme Court on Friday said "a calamity and disaster" as huge as the one witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir floods "deserves national response" and asked the Centre to apprise it on Monday on the urgent steps undertaken to accelerate rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations.
64 years after the Panshet Dam burst claimed 1,000 lives, the tragedy stands as both a haunting memory and a vital lesson in engineering caution.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Thursday with one more person losing his life and nearly 7.18 lakh people in 27 districts remaining affected by the deluge, an official bulletin said.
So far, over 30 people have died across Northeastern states due to heavy rainfalls, floods and landslides, according to media reports.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Nabin Payeng said the debris of the chopper was sighted from a hill top at Chopo Yoha in the district by a police team at the confluence of a water fall and the Nyorch river.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Friday described the flood situation in the twin districts of Midnapore which has claimed 25 lives and affected over 22 lakh people -- as 'very bad'. Of the 22 lakh people affected, 16 lakh were from West Midnapore and the rest from its coastal twin. He said the Army, which had been called in to assist in relief and rescue operations, was working in the worst-affected areas and also air-dropping dry food.
Floods triggered by low pressure induced rains wreaked havoc in cyclone-hit Ganjam and other coastal districts of Odisha, leaving 10 persons dead and lakhs marooned as helicopters launched rescue operations on Friday.
Jayalalithaa will undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Chennai city and its suburbs in Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts.
IAF pilots and crew dodged low hanging clouds, mist covered hills, steep valleys and landed on broken landing grounds to rescue civilians in Wayanad. In one mission, they had to descend vertically to get close to the survivors. IAF flew over 80 missions, saving lives and giving hope. This is how they did it.
Kirlosker Brothers' Limited sent teams from its offices in India, Thailand and the United Kingdom to the site.
Besides, 28 human limbs have also been recovered from different places in the affected area out of which one has been identified. Thirty-three bodies out of the 62 recovered so far have also been identified, police said, adding the DNAs of unidentified bodies are being preserved.
An Indian Air Force transport carrier 'C-130J Super Hercules' with 20 Odisha Fire Services personnel onboard will provide help to the authorities in the East Jaintia Hills.
Several major rivers, including Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Adhvara, Kosi, Mahananda and Gandak, are flowing above the danger level at many places along their course.
Army columns equipped with boats, bulldozers and engineering equippment have been rushed to Nanded and Bhadrachalam districts.
Himachal Pradesh has not witnessed such 'widespread heavy rains' in the past 50 years and the state has suffered a loss of about Rs 3,000 crore in this monsoon season so far, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Monday.
Heavy rains and landslides in Himachal Pradesh have resulted in multiple fatalities and widespread disruption, including road closures and train cancellations.
The downpour, which has been lashing Bihar for the past few days, is because of the Hathiya Nakshatra," he said.
Susngi said there was slight dip in the water level in the mine shaft, but it was not significant enough.
The basement of the coaching Institute in Old Rajendra Nagar where three civil services aspirants died by rain-induced flooding was functioning illegally as a library, officials said on Sunday.
Eight crew members were rescued from a sinking ship off Beypore in Kerala on Saturday by the Coast Guard.
Five bodies were recovered while 52 others were missing in flash floods caused by cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh's Ganavi village that swept away 16 houses, a senior district official said on Wednesday.
With the weather improving, the rescue operations in Uttarakhand picked up pace on Friday, with 17 choppers being flown to evacuate people still stranded at various locations.
