HYDERABAD: Heavy downpour lashed Hyderabad on Thursday afternoon leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. One person was killed and three others injured due to destruction caused by the rain. Like any other day, Md Khaseem Ali (45) and Md Anwar Ali (30) were at their spices shop in Osmangunj till they were caught off guard by the rain.
As they began shifting material lying in open outside the shop, Anwar Ali came in contact with a live electrical wire. Alarmed, Khaseem Ali rushed to rescue his brother and was electrocuted to death in the process. Anwar survived but is said to be in critical condition. In another case, a 100-year-old tree was uprooted in the rain and it came crashing over a 50-year-old restaurant called Shama Cafe in Moghalpura.
The cafe collapsed and a few people were injured in the incident. They were shifted to a private hospital for treatment. Cafe owner Abdul Mateen said the accident resulted in a loss of `5-`6 lakh for him. Four vehicles parked at the restaurant were also crushed under the tree. As many as 162 trees were uprooted and 4oo branches came crashing; 20 electrical poles were damaged across the city and two walls collapsed in Malakpet. Branches of trees snapped and crashed over electrical cables, resulting in power cuts in several parts of the city.
Temperature plunged from 40 degrees in the afternoon to anywhere between 25 and 30 degrees across the city in the evening. In a span of one hour between 3pm-4pm rainfall between 30-35 millimeters was recorded in various parts of the city. Amberpet recorded the highest rainfall of 48.8mm, followed by Narayanguda(42mm), Khairatabad(41.3mm), Nampally(41.3mm), Musheerabad(35.8mm), Asifnagar(34.5mm), Golkonda(35.3mm), Malkajgiri(35.3mm), Kapra(32mm), Monda market(29.3mm) and Srinagar colony(28.5mm). Rest other parts of the city also received light rains.
The heavy rains which lasted for about an hour was enough to throw the city's traffic out of gear. Stagnation of rainwater and uprooting of trees or falling of broken tree branches on the roads across various roads in the city like Khairatabad, Masab tank, Asifabad, Shaikpet, Goshamahal and Malakpet caused slowdown of traffic movement drastically. At many places traffic police personnel were busy clearing sludge from the openings of storm water drains near the roads, removing broken tree branches and clearing traffic by removing median.
GHMC emergency teams are on the job to remove the trees and branches that fell on roads and electricity wires to restore the traffic and electricity. Many areas were waterlogged and commuters faced difficulties due to the knee deep water on Raj Bhavan road, Ameerpet, Maithrivanam, Somajiguda, Punjagutta, Somajiguda, Ranigunj, Paradise, Bowenpally, Himayatnagar, Malakpet, I S Sadan, Santoshnagar, Mehidpatnam and several areas of old city, at many places of the Metro rail pillars as water got stagnated due to raising of medians as water could not flow from one side to another.
GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy visited Red Hills, Vijay Nagar colony and other areas where trees have fallen due to heavy rains personally monitored the situation where the emergency teams have removed the fallen trees which were obstructing the traffic. Commissioner directed all the ZCs, DCs and all the Engeering officials and Emergency teams to be vigil and alert to tackle the emergency.
The GHMC tweeted that emergency calls can be made to 040-21111111, while Hyderabad Traffic Police on Facebook advised people to stay indoors for a while.
The TSSPDCL patrolling teams are monitoring the situation to remove the tree branches for restoring the power at the earliest. If there are any power interruptions, breaking of live wires found on ground, citizens can alert on mobile numbers 73820 72104, 73820 72106 or 73820 7157. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in Hyderabad, the downpour is likely to continue for the next three days, with light rains in some places. Keeping the IMD forecast in view, the GHMC officials are taking the precautionary measures.