Hyderabad, Oct 5th: The damage caused by unprecedented floods in Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh, rated as the 'once in a millennium catastrophe', has been initially estimated at Rupees 12,225 crore. Chief Minister K Rosaiah urged the Centre to declare the disaster as a ''national calamity of rare severity''. The state also sought immediate release of Rs 6,000 crore for flood relief works, from the Centre. Mr Rosaiah explained to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram before they took off for an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas that this was the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) predicted to occur once in 10,000 years. 

The Srisailam reservoir was designed to handle an inflow of about 13.6 lakh cusecs. But it had received an unprecedented 25 lakh cusecs continuously for 12 hours on October 2. More than five lakh people were affected in Kurnool, which was inundated. More than 36 people have been reported dead. Hundreds of water bodies were damaged, posing a serious threat to the state's economy. Power generation of 770 MW has been lost for the next three to four months, following the inundation of Srisailam Right Bank Power house.

Submitting an advance memorandum at the Rajiv Gandhi International airport to Ms Gandhi, ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit later this week, the Chief Minister informed the Central leaders that the floods, according to preliminary estimates, had caused damages to public infrastructure, including irrigation, roads, power and communication to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore, agricultural sector Rs 1050 crore, animal husbandry Rs 275 crore, fisheries Rs 100 crore, and housing Rs 300 crore. He said Rs 500 crore was required for rescue and relief operations, including food supplies.