Heavy rains lash Telangana, red alert for 11 districts

Hyderabad, Sep 1 : Heavy rains were lashing several parts of Telangana, inundating low-lying areas, paralysing normal life, and throwing road and rail traffic out of gear while the met office has issued a red alert for 11 districts.

Widespread rains under the impact of depression in Bay of Bengal and monsoon have been lashing Hyderabad, surrounding districts, and other parts of the state since Saturday night. Some parts of the affected districts were facing flood threats.

Some residential colonies in the state capital and other affected districts were inundated, causing severe inconvenience to residents.

Overflowing lakes, tanks and streams cut off villages at few places in Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts.

In Warangal district, a bus of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation was caught in floods at Topanapalli. Passengers spent the night in the bus as flood water from a lake had submerged the road.

Several trains were stopped, cancelled and diverted as the railway track was damaged due to floods at a few places in Mahabubabad district.

In view of the heavy rains, the state government has opened a special control room at the State Secretariat to monitor the situation.

The Disaster Management Department has opened the control room with phone number 040-23454088.

Two cars and an autorickshaw driver were washed away in flood water in Kodad town in Suryapet district. Body of a man was found in one of the cars. The fate of others travelling in cars and three-wheelers is not known.

Vehicular traffic on Khammam-Suryapet highway came to a halt as the highway was submerged by flood water.

Meanwhile, the water level was rising in Godavari river at Bhadrachalam in Bhadradri Kothagudem district. The water level was 27 feet on Sunday morning.

According to Telangana Development Planning Society, Huzurnagar in Suryapet district received the highest rainfall of 299.8 mm from 8.30 p.m. on Saturday to 6 a.m. on Sunday.

Inugurthy in Mahabubabad district recorded 298 mm rainfall. Chilkur in Suryapet district received 297.8 mm rainfall. Some areas in Mahabubabad, Khammam and Suryapet districts received 277 to 296 mm rainfall.

The met office has issued a red alert to 11 districts – Adilabad, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Mahbubabad, Jangaon, Kamareddy, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy, Narayanpet and Jogulamba Gadwal. These districts are likely to receive extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over the next 24 hours.

The met office has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in 11 other districts.