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Heavy rain pounds Telangana, yellow alert in six districts
According to an official bulletin from India Meteorological Department (IMD) office in Hyderabad, the sudden downpour was due to a tough from east Vidarbha to interior south Tamil Nadu across Telangana and Rayalaseema.
Heavy rains, accompanied by gale and thunderstorms, pounded several parts of Telangana on Wednesday, providing much needed respite to the people suffering from scorching summer heat.
According to an official bulletin from India Meteorological Department (IMD) office in Hyderabad, the sudden downpour was due to a tough from east Vidarbha to interior south Tamil Nadu across Telangana and Rayalaseema.
The bulletin said Luxettipet in Mancherial district received a maximum rainfall of 8.52 cm, followed by 8.2 cm in Dharmapuri in Karimnagar district, 7.96 cm in the temple town of Yadagirigutta in Yadadri Bhongir district.
The IMD issued a yellow alert for Kothagudem, Khammam, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Mahabubabad and Nagarkurnool districts for the next four days indicating light to moderate rain or thundershowers to occur in a few places over Telangana.
“Thunderstorms accompanied with lightening and gusty winds (30-40 kmph) likely to occur at isolated places in few districts of Telangana,” the bulletin said.
State capital Hyderabad woke up to heavy rains that began at around 4 am and continued till 7.30 am on Wednesday. The rainfall ranged from as high as 7.2 cm in Seethaphalmandi near Secunderabad to 3.5 cm in Begum Bazar area.
The downpour resulted in inundation of several low-lying areas in the old city of Hyderabad, Mehdipatnam, Tolichowki and Ashok Nagar. The sanitation staff and Disaster Response Force (DRF) teams of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation plunged into action to clear the water-logged areas, remove uprooted trees and cleaned the pits. Boats were used by disaster relief personnel to ferry residents to safer locations in Hyderabad.
At Golnaka area of Amberpet, three persons were injured when the parapet wall of a building collapsed on them due to sudden heavy downpour. “We have immediately shifted them to Osmania General Hospital for treatment. They sustained fractures, but their condition is stable,” said a police official from Amberpet police station.
At Shankar Mutt area, a portion of the road caved in due to heavy rains and the GHMC and police authorities closed the areas and diverted the traffic to prevent accidents.
Several areas in Hyderabad reported power cuts for several hours since early morning. Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited Chairman and Managing Director G Raghuma Reddy said the power outage in some parts of the city was mainly due to trees getting uprooted and falling on electric lines.
“Teams have been deployed to clear uprooted trees. Power supply will be restored soon. Avoid touching live electric wires that have fallen to the ground or water,” he said.
The temple town of Yadagirigutta, which received 7.9 cm of rain, witnessed heavy damages to the roads and facilities created for pilgrims coming to the newly-renovated Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple. The road leading to the temple on the hillock caved in, forcing the authorities to suspend the traffic and pilgrims had to trek the hillock braving rain.
There was heavy logging around the cottages built around the hillock for pilgrims, causing a lot of inconvenience for them.
There were reports of widespread damage to standing paddy crops ready for harvesting in different parts of Telangana. At many other places, paddy brought to the procurement centres for purchase by the government was also soaked in the rain water.
While some of the farmers managed to protect their produce by placing tarpaulins, some paddy was washed away in the rain water. The damage caused to the crops and paddy was yet to be assessed, an agriculture department official said.
