10 Die as Rain Shatters Record, Batters Telangana

HYDERABAD: The record-shattering rainfall over several places in Telangana since Wednesday resulted in severe floods, particularly in many areas of north Telangana districts even as at least 10 people were killed after getting caught in the floods and being washed away in the undivided Warangal district area.

Laxmidevipeta village in Venkatapur mandal of Mulugu district logged 64.98 cm of rain in a 24-hour period starting at 8.30 am on Wednesday, the highest-ever in Telangana. Twenty of the 30 districts reported receiving more than 23 cm of rain during the same period. The cumulative rainfall record for a single day was also broken simultaneously with meteorological officials reporting that Telangana received 9.77 cm of rain in the period.

Ten people lost their lives in separate incidents related to flooding. Three deaths were the result of the overflowing Jampanna Vagu in Eturnagaram mandal in Mulugu, three others were washed away after a lake bund breached. Two brothers died while trying to cross a flooded stream in Mahbubabad district. While one person lost his life in Hanamkonda district, another died in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district. The heaviest rainfall reported from Bhupalpally district ranged from 27.68 cm to 61.65 cm in different mandals, while Kamalapur in Hanamkonda recorded 36.35 cm of rain.

On Thursday, three districts —Nirmal, Jagtial and Nizmabad — bore the brunt of the rain with the TS Development Planning Society reporting that rainfall ranging from 14.88 cm to 23.18 cm were recorded in these districts. The maximum of 23.18 cm of rain was reported from Kaddam Peddur mandal of Nirmal district while the lowest among the top 20 heavy rainfall locations was reported as Makloor mandal of Nizamabad district. Ten of the 20 highest rainfall receiving locations on Thursday were from Nirmal district.

Even as the state government stepped up efforts for rescue and rehabilitation of affected people in various districts, the Indian Meteorological Department in its forecast for Friday indicated a possible easing of the situation across the state.

For Friday, the IMD said moderate to heavy rain or thundershowers were very likely to occur at most places over the state. And it also stepped down its warning from red to yellow for Friday for the state but also warned that thunderstorms, accompanied by lightning and wind gusts of up to 40 km per hour were likely to occur over the state. Compared to this, the IMD’s forecast till Friday morning said that several districts would experience heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rainfall over parts of north Telangana districts till Friday morning along with heavy to very heavy rain and some light to moderate rain over most of the state.

In Hyderabad, heavy inflows continued into Osmansagar and Himayatsagar lakes and the authorities continued to release water into the Musi river from the two reservoirs by keeping open four gates at both lakes.

 

Top 5 rainfall locations in 24-hour period from 8.30 a.m Wednesday

Rain – Village – Mandal – District

64.9 cm – Laxmidevipeta – Venkatapur – Mulugu

61.6 cm – Chityal – Chityal – JS-Bupalapalle

47.6 cm – Chelpur – Ghanpur – JS-Bhupalapalle

46.7 cm – Regonda – Regonda – JS-Bhupalapalle

39.4 cm – Mogullapally – Mogullapally – JS-Bhupalapalle

Top 5 rainfall locations from 8.30 am to 10 pm Thursday

Rain – Village – Mandal – District

23.2 cm – Lingapur – Kaddam Peddur – Nirmal

22.1 cm – Patha Yellapur – Khanapur – Nirmal

18.5 cm – Abdullapur – Lokeshwaram – Nirmal

18.2 cm – Navipet – Navipet – Nizamabad

18.2 cm – Mudhole – Mudhole – Nirmal