Karimnagar: The devastating combination of extremely heavy rainfall from Cyclone Montha and the breaching of several lakes has submerged large parts of Hanamkonda and Warangal, bringing life to a complete standstill. The catastrophic flooding began when the Gopalapuram lake bund breached around 3 am on Thursday, sending torrents of water into surrounding colonies in Hanamkonda.
The breach inundated several colonies near Gopalapuram Lake, including Tirumala, Vishnupuri, Ramakrishna, Revenue, and Navayuga, forcing residents on the ground floors to take refuge on rooftops. Additional breaches at Orrocheruvu, Waddepally Lake, and Bhadrakali Lake have worsened the crisis.
Bhagya Laxmi, a government teacher and resident of Vishnupuri Colony, told Deccan Chronicle that she woke up to find water already inside her house. She and her husband quickly carried their two young children to the first floor for safety as the entire colony was submerged with no way out.
Around 90 colonies across the tri-cities of Hanamkonda, Warangal, and Kazipet are trapped in floodwaters. Water levels on some city roads rose high enough to submerge a person completely, crippling vehicular movement on major routes such as KUC 100 Feet Road and the National Highway near Alankar Junction. The Warangal Under Bridge Road and the connecting road between Warangal and Hanamkonda were also blocked after Bondivagu and a nala at Mulugu Road overflowed.
The relentless flooding has led to major infrastructure failures. The Gopalpur Electricity Sub-Station was submerged, causing a power outage across affected areas. In one alarming incident, 85 people, including children, attending a wedding at Padmavathi Gardens near Hunter Road were trapped after floodwaters surged into the venue, prompting a rescue operation using boats when the power failed.
Police and Disaster Response Teams have launched large-scale rescue operations, using boats, ropes, and JCB machines to evacuate stranded residents to shelter homes. About 400 students from the Social Welfare Hostel at Hunter Road were rescued after floodwaters entered their premises.
“One of the rescued students said, ‘We spent the entire night without electricity. When the water started entering the ground floor, we were terrified and rushed to the top floors. We waited until Thursday afternoon when rescue teams finally reached us with boats.’”
Officials and political leaders have been on-site assessing the situation. Hanamkonda district collector Sneha Shabarish, Warangal West MLA Naini Rajendar Reddy, and municipal commissioner Chahat Bajpai visited submerged areas and supervised rescue operations. MP Kadiyam Kavya inspected Gopalapuram and TNGOS Colony in an NDRF boat, distributing milk, water, and food packets to affected families.
Collector Sneha Shabarish urged residents to stay indoors, avoid electrical poles and transformers, and keep children safe. All schools and colleges in the district were declared closed for the day.
Meanwhile, residents of colonies such as Sammaiah Nagar, where nearly 4,000 homes are submerged, blamed the disaster on the delayed opening of water sluices and demanded permanent measures to prevent recurring annual floods.
