Hyderabad woke up to heavy rain on Wednesday morning to find its roads turned into lakes causing massive traffic jams and the 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 1 cm water in just two hours flooding many low lying areas as water entered the 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 Musheerabad area. The three members were seriously injured and rushed to hospital where they succumbed to injuries.
Several major 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 rains badly hit the attendance in office 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 woes were the worst on the routes where the Hyderabad Metro Rail works are in progress.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation emergency squads were pressed into service to open the main holes to clear the rain water from the roads. The Traffic Police personnel were also busy in pushing the failed vehicles off the roads to clear the traffic jams at many places.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao spoke to the 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 due to the rains.
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 one cm rainfall in just one hour creating a crisis like situation. “Hyderabad drainage system is such that it can not handle more than 20 mm rain in an hour”, an official said explaining the reason for the flooding of the roads.
Due to the heavy inflows in to Hussain Sagar lake, the water levels had reached the danger level and officials were planning to discharge the water. 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 very heavy rains. Some places in Ranga Reddy district recorded as high as 22 cms in last 24 hours. Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district, Kottagudem in Khammam and Kodangal in Mahbubnagar district 11, 10 and 9 cms respectively.
Same was the situation in Andhra Pradesh where Nuzividu in Krishna district and Eluru in West Godavari district recorded 7 cms rains each.
The rains which started in the wee hours continued till around noon. The Meteorological Center has warned of more rains in the city and other places in Telangna and Andhra Pradesh.