Rain havoc continues in state, highways flooded

Normal life was thrown out of gear across the state with the heavy rainfall since Wednesday night.

Two youngsters were washed away in Mulugu Eturu Nagaram district and another drowned in a check dam in Mahabubnagar district on Thursday.

After a brief respite in the last two days, the rains again picked up in the state with Warangal Rural, Bhupalapally,

Mulugu, Peddapally, Karimnagar and BhadradriKothagudem and also Hyderabad receiving heavy to very heavy rainfall on Wednesday night.

Public transport was also severely affected in the state as the heavy rainfall left many roads, including several national highways waterlogged and streams, tanks and rivulets overflowing in many parts of the state. Several villages lost road connectivity in the state with breaching of roads due to flood water.

In Warangal Rural district, the highway connecting Narsampet and Nekkonda is flooded at Chennaraopet mandal obstructing traffic movement to either side. Coal production is also severely affected in the mines of Singareni collieries in Karimnagar, Ramagundam, Kothagudem and Jayashankar Bhupalapally.

Officials said crops in 3.6 lakh acres were submerged and the enumeration of crop loss is on.

Mahesh Palawat, say that the number of weather systems have been unusually high, this year.

“There were close to five systems that have impacted the weather over Telangana. These systems have brought along copious amounts of rain over the state. There will be another such system over Telangana on August 23,” he said.

IMD has also issued a yellow alert for the next two days for the state. In its alert, it asked officials concerned to restrict movement and asked the municipalities concerned to display warnings.

For the fourth day in a row, the city saw the skies open up. According to the Telangana state development planning society (TSDPS), the highest rainfall in the city, was recorded at Mehdipatnam where the rain gauges measured 26.3 mm of rain (till 8 pm).

Weather officials say this would continue for the next 48 hours.

“There are going to be light to moderate showers over the city for the next two days. We predict that there would be a new weather system over the state that would hit it around 23 August. Once this system is in place, more showers are expected,” said an official of the Indian meteorological department.