Hyderabad: Heavy rains continued to pour over many parts of Telangana, including Hyderabad, on Sunday. The situation became so serious that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy called for an emergency meeting with available ministers and officials. He also contacted several ministers like Bhatti Vikramarka, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Tummala Nageswar Rao, Damodara Raja Narasimha, and Jupalli Krishna Rao over the phone to check on the relief efforts in the affected areas.
Unfortunately, the heavy rains led to tragic incidents. A woman lost her life, and three others are feared to have been washed away in separate incidents in Mahabubabad and Khammam districts. The overall situation in the state is grim, with fears that at least 20 people have either died or gone missing due to the floods and heavy rains. Normal life was severely disrupted on Sunday.
More than 110 villages were flooded, and the road and rail connections between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were cut off. The districts of Khammam, Warangal, and Nalgonda were among the worst affected. Several colonies were submerged, forcing people to seek refuge on the rooftops of their houses.
In Mahabubabad, a man and his daughter went missing on Saturday. Sadly, the daughter’s body was found, but the father’s whereabouts remain unknown. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been searching since Saturday but has not yet located him.
The situation in Ramapuram, located at the border area, worsened as the Chimiryala stream began flooding heavily. The floodwaters overflowed onto the National Highway at Nallabandagudem, causing a massive traffic jam at the interstate check post. As a result, officials had to stop vehicular traffic on both sides of the Hyderabad-Vijayawada Highway.
An RTC bus was stranded in the Paleru stream at Nallabandagudem. The flooding also affected train services, with tracks between Kesamudram-Intekanne, Tadla Pusapalli-Mahabubabad, and Rayanapdu railway station submerged. This led to the cancellation or diversion of several train services on the Vijayawada-Kazipet route.
In Khammam, several colonies were flooded, including Munneruvagu, where floodwaters entered the Rajiv Gruhakalpa Colony, trapping a family in an apartment. Seven people were stranded in a house in Venkateswar Nagar, and floodwaters reached the second floor of houses in Karunagiri Sai Krishna Nagar Colony. Nine people were also stranded on the Munneruvagu bridge.
Due to the severity of the situation, and with state helicopters being non-operational, the government requested a Defense helicopter from the Naval base in Visakhapatnam to assist with rescue efforts.
In Warangal district, low-lying areas were filled with floodwaters. The lakes and streams in the Yeturunagaram agency area in Mulugu district were overflowing, resulting in the suspension of transport between Yeturunagaram and Warangal. The Fire Department personnel carried out significant rescue operations, saving more than 400 people stranded in the floods in Kodada. By Sunday evening, they had conducted 13 major rescue operations.
