By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : The situation in Hyderabad is going from bad to worse with incessant heavy rains playing havoc with the lives and properties of the people. The toll in the rains and flood related incidents across Andhra Pradesh during last 24 hours has mounted to 35, 11 of them in Hyderabad alone. 8 people died in Krishna, five in West Godavari. Three deaths were reported from Medak, two each Chittoor Nalgonda Nizamabad and Visakhapatnam and one from Karimnagar district.
As Hyderabad received more than 15 cms of rains during last 24 hours, starting from Friday evening, many residential areas have turned in to tanks and lakes. Water has flooded in to hundreds of homes in low lying areas, hitting both the poor and the middle class families.
As usual Nadeem Colony of Toli Chowki area was the hardest hit as water up to four to five feet has entered the homes of the people. The administration has deployed boats to move the people to safer places. The state revenue minister Dharmana Prasad Rao said that three relief camps have been opened in Hyderabad and people were being provided food and safe drinking water.
People living along a drain connected to the Hussain Sagar lake were also being evacuated as the water was being discharged from the lake. The commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation said that the water level in the lake has crossed the danger mark.
The warning of the meteorological department that under the influence of depression in Bay of Bengal will continue for next 48 hours has left the state government worried. “In view of the warning the holidays of the government officials have been cancelled and administration in rain hit districts has been put on high alert”, said the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. He wanted the people also to be alert and take maximum precautions.
“The rainfall was so heavy in Hyderabad that one third of total annual rainfall came only in a few hours”, said Navin Mittal, the district collector of Hyderabad.
While the rains paralyzed the normal life in Hyderabad putting the masses to a great hardship, 8 other districts in coastal Andhra and Telangana region were also hit hard by the heavy rains.
Apart from cutting off the road links at several places, the rain water had also drowned the tracks at many places including Warangal affecting the train services.
Life was hit hardest in Hyderabad where many major roads and junctions like Moazzam Jahi Market, Nampally, Basheerbagh, Khairatabad, Punjagutta were under three feet of water. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on busy roads like Punjagutta to Kukatpally, Malakpet, Dilsukhnagar, Miyapur, Begumpet-Secunderabad road.
A mother and son died when a mud house collapsed near Film Nagar. Husband and wife died and their child survived when a house collapsed in Mangalhat area. Another couple Hussain and Shamsi Begum were killed when their house in Gulzar House collapsed.
“The water clogged on the roads because the underground drainage system could not cope with the massive flow of rain water”, a senior official of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation said.
The revenue minister Dharmana Prasad Rao said that 80% water which should have been absorbed by earth in Hyderabad was flowing as the city’s land was covered by buildings, cement roads and other structures leaving no space for the water to seep.
The rains have revived the memory of August 23, 2000 when a heavy rainfall of 24 cms in less than 24 hours had left 30 people dead in Hyderabad and many areas inundated.