KADAPA: Heavy rains in Rayachoti, Annamayya district, killed four people, including two children, officials said. The city recorded 14.4 cm of rainfall in a single night—heaviest in 30 years.
On Friday night, torrential rains flooded roads as drains and canals overflowed. Low-lying areas were submerged, and rivulets and streams swelled, disrupting normal life.
Around 10.30 pm, tragedy struck at SN Colony when Muni (27) and her son Ilyas (6) were standing on stones near a stormwater drain. The structure collapsed, sweeping both into the floodwaters. A neighbour, Ganesh (30), who tried to save them, was also washed away. Locals recovered the three bodies near the Governor Function Hall.
Despite overnight searches by officials, the woman’s body was found two and a half kilometres downstream in the Mandavyanadhi canal the next morning. All four bodies were shifted to the government hospital for postmortem, and Rayachoti police registered a case.
In another incident at Kotthapeta Ramapuram, floodwater entered an autorickshaw carrying private school children. The driver forced six children to alight in the water. Locals rescued five, but a six-year-old girl, Yamini, was swept away.
Transport and Youth Affairs Minister Mandipalli Ramprasad Reddy and District Collector Nishant Kumar visited bereaved families, offered condolences, and handed over ex gratia cheques of Rs 5 lakh each, while the Mandipalli Nagireddy Trust gave Rs 1 lakh per family.
The Minister inspected rain-hit areas and ordered vigilance. Meanwhile, swollen rivers and rivulets inundated fields and homes across multiple mandals, disrupting transport and sweeping away livestock.