VIJAYAWADA: Rains continued to play havoc with lives of people across the state for the second day in a row as the upper air circulation over Bay of Bengal had sent sheets of rain interspersed with lightning strikes resulting in six more deaths on Monday. Nine people died in different incidents of lightning strikes in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts on Sunday.
According to reports, in Kadapa two persons were electrocuted while one girl was crushed to death in a wall collapse on Monday.
The electrocution occurred when the power cables snapped and fell on the road due to heavy rain. Venkata Lakshmamma, 45, died when she came out on Monday morning to buy milk and came in contact with the wire. Srihari, 37, met with the same fate when he rushed to help her.
The wall collapse incident took place in Lakshminagar in Railway Koduru. The wall, which became soaked with rain water, crashed into her while she was sleeping.
In Vizianagaram district, two shepherds were washed away while they were crossing a swollen rivulet in Regadi in Garividi mandal. The victims were identified as Paidi Thalli, 60 and Trinath, 25.
In Krishna district, an agriculture labourer died due to lightning strike in G Konduru. Sources said that the victim, A Daveedu, from Vinukonda in Guntur district, was working as a farmhand. After day’s work on Monday, he was about to leave the field when he was struck by lightning.
Several parts in Anantapur district have received heavy rainfall. The usually barren and dried up tanks had filled up in no time and two of them had breached. In Kalyandurgam, a tank breached and Swarnamuki is in spate which washed away a check dam. In Kurnool too, streams and rivulets are in spate. Vedavati is overflowing which has cut road transportation between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The met department predicts moderate to heavy rains in the next 24 hours due to the influence of upper air circulation over Bay of Bengal.