The much-anticipated rain has come and came as a heavy downpour. While the farmers heaved a sigh of relief, normal citizens lament the inconvenience as the rain threw their life out of gear. At several places, roads were washed away interrupting the flow of vehicles and cutting off several villages. In Bhupalapalli, the road connecting Garimellapalli and Oded village was washed away in the flood.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad has issued a warning of heavy to very heavy rains lashing several districts for the next five days. The IMD issued a red alert to the north Telangana districts. In districts – Karimanagar, Mulugu, Peddapalli, Kothagudem, Siddipet and Kamareddy, heavy rain is expected and an orange alert was issued. A yellow alert was issued to the districts – Adilabad, Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagitial, Sircilla, Bhupalpalli, Yadadri, Rangareddy, Medchal, Malkazgiri, Sangareddy and Medak.
Following continued rain from Monday evening to Tuesday late hours, the floor level at Kaleshwaram project witnessed a steady rise. As the Pranahita River was in spate, the Laxmi barrage received heavy inflows. The officials were forced to open 35 gates to let 1,65,394 cusecs of water down the stream. Similarly, the Sammakka barrage in Tupakulagudem reached its full capacity due to a flood from the Indravathi River. The officials opened 33 gates to let 1.95 lakh cusecs of water into river Godavari.
The continued rain disrupted the coal mining operations in open-cast mines at Bhupalpally. As a result, the production of eight thousand tonnes of coal was stalled. The forested Mulugu district witnessed 8.54 centimetres of rainfall with Kannaigudem village receiving the highest of 9.84 centimetres. The district officials stopped the nature lover from proceeding to the enchanting Bogatha waterfalls in the district as a precautionary measure. In the Adilabad district, streams and rivulets were overflowing and many causeways were submerged in flood waters as the rain continued to hit the district.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao