Hyderabad: Heavy rain lashed the state on Sunday, displacing people, inundating crops in thousands of acres and hitting infrastructure hard, particularly roads and low-lying culverts, and cutting off road connectivity to several villages, including some stretches between Telangana and Maharashtra in Adilabad district.Though the state witnessed heavy showers on Saturday night, the rain abated during the day on Sunday, but picked up again late in the night. More wet weather is in store for the state with the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad, warning of heavy rainfall at isolated places in several districts until Aug 20.In its latest bulletin, the IMD forecast “heavy to very heavy rainfall” from Sunday until 8.30am on Aug 20. A ‘red alert’ has been issued from 8.30am on August 18 to 8.30 am on August 19, warning of “very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall” likely at isolated locations in Mulugu, Bhadradri Kothagudem, and Mahabubabad districts. A ‘red alert’ indicates “extremely heavy rainfall” exceeding 20 cm in 24 hours. Also, heavy to very heavy rainfall (15-20 cm) is forecast for Kamareddy, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, Medak and Sangareddy districts. The IMD has also issued moderate to heavy rainfall warning for the remaining districts in Telangana. It also further warned that thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds of 30-40 kmph are likely at isolated places across all districts of the state until Aug 22.District collectors are assessing the damage caused due to continuous rainfall since Saturday. Mulugu was the worst hit with 22 cm rainfall being recorded at Govindaraopet of the district, followed by 17 cm in Tamsi of Adilabad district and 12.5 cm in an hour and a half in Mancherial district. Vehicular traffic was cut off to as many as 19 villages and diverted through other routes in Bhupalpally district.A distributary canal of Singur left bank canal suffered a breach at Isojipet in Pulkal mandal on Sunday morning, the second such incident in less than a year. With heavy inflows reaching the project from upstream, irrigation officials released water into both canals to impound minor irrigation tanks and meet the requirements of vanakalam crops. However, the fresh breach dashed farmers’ hopes.Health minister Damodar Rajanarsimha, accompanied by the district collector and the superintendent of police along with irrigation officials, rushed to the spot in a tractor and inspected the condition of the breach on the distributary canal of the Singur left bank canal. With bitumen road connectivity cut off due to slush and flooding, officials arranged a tractor for the minister and others to reach the site. After examining the damage, Raja Narsimha directed irrigation officials to begin restoration work immediately. He later visited the Singur reservoir to review inflows.The state continued to receive relentless monsoon rain, with widespread crop loss and infrastructure damage reported across several districts. Flooding in districts like Adilabad, Mulugu, Mahbubabad, and Suryapet has submerged cotton and paddy fields, washed away saplings, and damaged roads, bridges, and canals.Telangana has been reeling under the impact of relentless heavy rainfall for the past week with erstwhile Warangal, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda also being hit hard. Streams and canals were overflowing in the rain-affected areas. NDRF members safely brought out four members of a family trapped in a house in Subhashnagar with the help of ropes in Adilabad.In Warangal, traffic came to a standstill in 10 villages after the Ralla Vagu on the Buddaram road in Mulugu mandal overflowed and flooded the approach road.Heavy rains caused Munneru river and local streams to overflow in Khammam, cutting off villages and inundating crops. Authorities have opened relief centres, increased patrolling, and lifted gates of some of the projects.
