HYDERABAD: Torrential rains lashed the whole of Telangana on Thursday, disrupting normal life and triggering floods in some areas. The downpour cut off transportation in some villages, while in several districts, it invaded homes and made life miserable for residents.
It appears that there would be more to come in the next few days, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) changing its ‘orange’ alert to ‘red’ and predicting heavy rain and flood in most of the districts till August 14.
Hyderabad and several districts received rain without any let up throughout the day. This brought the day temperature to 22oC — 10 notches lower. As people preferred to stay indoors, there was not much traffic on the roads. Water stagnation and poor visibility was reported in many areas. The Hyderabad Traffic Police even warned citizens, through its Twitter handle, to drive slow as many roads turned slippery. The Director Of Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management, too, cautioned citizens about the intensity of rain and asked them to make travel plans accordingly.
The day also saw some negligence by officials — on Street No. 8 in Habsiguda, the HMWS&SB left a manhole open without any warning sign. This posed a threat to commuters, especially at night.
In several suburbs of the city, power disruptions remained a major problem, with the number of complaints increasing five-fold. This made it difficult for people to work from home. The TSSPDCL’s Twitter page was flooded with complaints. According to the TSSPDCL officials, the outages were more common in Cybercity, Medhcal and Shadnagar.
According to the automatic weather stations of the Telangana State Development and Planning Society (TSDPS), Asif Nagar registered 38.3 mm of rain, while most of the suburbs saw above 25 mm until 8 pm.
In the rest of the State, Mulugu, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally, Adilabad, Nirmal, Khammam, Mancherial, Nizamabad, Jagtial, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Suryapet and Warangal (Rural and Urban) districts saw rainfall above 10 cm early on Thursday.
Meanwhile, several villages in Khammam district were cut off and standing crops inundated. The water level in the Godavari river continued to rise at Bhadrachalam, crossing the 35-ft mark and officials will issue the ‘first warning’ once it touches 43 ft.Kothagudem Collector MV Reddy has directed the officials concerned to take all necessary steps to shift the villagers in low-lying areas to safer locations.
Several tanks and streams brimmed with inflows as the GWMC limits received heavy rains from Tuesday night itself, flooding some low-lying areas. The Laknavaram, Ramappa and Pakhal lakes started to overflow. According to sources, the Pakhal lake in Khanapur mandal received heavy inflows, taking the water level to 27.3 ft, as against its gross capacity of 30 ft. While the water level in the Laknavaram lake at Govindaraopet mandal in Mulugu district reached 33.2 ft, Ramappa’s touched 28.5 ft, as against its capacity of 35 ft.