Hyderabad: Hyderabad woke up to heavy rains on Wednesday morning to find its roads turned into lakes causing massive traffic jams and people caught in knee-deep water. At least seven people died in two incidents of house collapse in different parts of the city.
Weather office said the city received about 1cm rainfall in just two hours, flooding many low-lying areas as water entered apartments and colonies.
Four members of a family died when their house collapsed in Uppal area while another similar incident claimed the lives of three members of a family in Bholakpur locality’s Musheerabad area. The three members of the second family were seriously injured and rushed to hospital where they succumbed to injuries.
Several arterial roads linking the city with the outskirts including Uppal, LB Nagar, Miyapur, Kokatpally, Santosh Nagar were under more than two feet of water as hundreds of vehicles remain stranded for several hours creating massive traffic snarls.
The rain badly hit the attendance in offices and educational institutions. Even those who dared to come out had to spent more than four hours on the roads to reach their destinations completely drenched.
The worst was on routes where the Hyderabad Metro Rail works are in progress.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation emergency squads were pressed in to service to open the main manholes to clear the rain water. Traffic police personnel were also busy pushing the broken down vehicles off the roads at many places.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao spoke to municipal administration minister K. Taraka Rama Rao and other officials and directed them to immediately launch relief and rescue operations and shift the people from the flooded areas of the city. He expressed shock and grief over the loss of life.
Telangana chief secretary Rajiv Sharma reviewed the situation with GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy and other top officials. The officials pointed out that some parts of the city had received more than 1cm rainfall in just one hour creating a crisis-like situation. “The Hyderabad drain system is such that it cannot handle more than 20mm rain in an hour”, an official said explaining the reason for the flooding of roads.
Due to the heavy inflows in to the Hussain Sagar lake, the water level had reached the danger level and officials were planning to open the shutters.
Hyderabad Mayor B. Rammohan appealed to the people in the low-lying areas to be on alert in view of the likelihood of the release of water from the lake.
The city surroundings were also lashed by heavy rain. Some places in Ranga Reddy district recorded as high as 22cm in last 24 hours. Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district, Kottagudem in Khammam and Kodangal in Mahbubnagar district received 11cm, 10cm and 9cm of rainfall, respectively.
The situation was similar in Andhra Pradesh where Nuzividu in Krishna district and Eluru in West Godavari district recorded 7cm rainfall each.
The rain which started in the wee hours continued till around noon. The Meteorological Centre has warned of more rain in the city and other places in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.