JOIN US Collapsed houses, breached tanks, damaged roads, culverts and bridges and rotting crops. These are common scenes a Deccan Herald correspondent saw while touring nearly 400 km in Bijapur, one of the badly affected districts in the century's worst floods.
The huge loss in the devastating floods began unfolding as the water levels started receding in most of the places. Even on Wednesday, in some of the places, the correspondent had to wade through water and slush to reach the people. People are feeling a bit relieved as there has been no fresh spell of rain in the last few days.
Electricians are busy repairing electric motors which were under water for more than three days. People were seen pumping out water from houses and cellars. Villagers were drying up soaked jowar, grains in front of their houses and on roads. The badly damaged Talikot-Bijapur Road near Talikot in the district indicates the wrought brought in by the floods.
The villagers, whose houses have collapsed or submerged, are still camping at schools, temples and community halls. The Hubli Electricity Supply Company staff is working overtime to restore power supply. the PWD workers are also busy in repairing the damaged roads. Farming and stone quarrying activities have come to a stand still, rendering thousands jobless. Several stone (Minajagi Parsi) quarries in Muddebihal taluk are filled with water.
People residing along the banks of Krishna, Bhima and the Doni rivers were worst affected. Khariff crops - sugar cane, sunflower, tur dal, cotton jowar, bajra in thousands of acres in Bijapur, Indi, Sindagi, Basavan Bagewadi and Muddebihal taluks have been lost.
Hadaginal and Nadahalli, situated on the banks of Don River in Muddebihal taluk, had virtually become an island for six days. People came out of their villages only on Tuesday. The government tried to air drop food bags when the village was cut off. The bags fell in the water far away from the village. The officials claim that they had dropped about 1,300 bags, but, the villagers did not get any.
In some places, the villagers alleged that local MLAs and officials didn't come to their help.
An alert old woman escaped when her house collapsed at Bolwad in Muddebihal taluk. She noticed a crack developing in the wall and ran out of the house. The house crumbled down just seconds after she came out.