Monsoon rains and floods have killed 42 people in southern and eastern India and displaced tens of thousands of others, officials said on Friday.
Forty deaths have been reported from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh since Wednesday while two people were killed in neighboring Orissa on Friday in flash floods.
The deaths were mostly due to collapsing houses, falling trees and electrocution after hundreds of electric poles were knocked down by strong winds.
The airport in the port town of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh was closed after the runway was flooded and water entered the terminal building.
“Nearly 25,500 people have been displaced and 3,600 rendered homeless as landslides and floods have destroyed their homes,” said disaster management official Debabratha Kanta.
Navy boats and helicopters rescued people stranded on the roofs of their houses while rail and road traffic had been blocked in several areas by flood waters and landslides.
The rains were expected to continue for another 24 hours, said M. Satya Kumar at the meteorological center in the Andhra capital of Hyderabad.
Dozens of people have been killed in other parts of India including in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra since the annual monsoons started in June.