WARANGAL: Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed in the Kondai village of Eturunagaram Mandal on Friday after the true extent of the devastation caused by a swollen Jampanna Vagu became evident. While eight villagers lost their life, those who survived lost their worldly possessions to the floods.
The bodies of the victims were retrieved after an hours-long intense search operation by officials and rescue teams. The victims were identified as B Sammakka, Sharif, Nazeer, Mahaboob, Majidi, Rasheed, Kareem Bi, and Bibi. As the gushing waters engulfed the village, the villagers fought desperately to survive, but their efforts were in vain. One heartbreaking sight was the body of one of the victims found hanging on electric wires, evidence of the desperate struggle to escape the deluge.
Drained fields now serve as a painful reminder of the devastation caused by the natural disaster. The villagers have lost everything they owned and have been shifted to relief camps. The survivors, especially the women, were seen crying, seeking help from the government to restart their life afresh in this forest village.
Meanwhile, NDRF and police teams searching for the four people who washed away in a local stream in Moranchapalle, could not make any headway till late on Friday. These four were identified as Odireddy, Vajramma, G Sarojana, and Gaddam Mahalakshmi.
Amid the calamity, around 80 stranded villagers from Kondai and Malyala in Mulugu district were successfully rescued by district authorities, with five pregnant women and three patients among those shifted to the Community Health Centre in Eturunagaram.
The rescue operations were spearheaded by Mulugu SP Gaush Alam, OSD Ashok Kumar, and Eturnagaram ASP Sirisetti Sankeerth, who coordinated the efforts of NDRF, district disaster, revenue, and Eturnagaram police teams. The use of boats played a crucial role in transporting villagers to the rehabilitation centres at Eturunagaram mandal headquarters.
Sankeerth revealed that the unfortunate incident occurred as the Jampanna stream swelled due to heavy inflows following incessant rainfall in the forested areas. Despite the tragedy, some residents of Kondai and Malyala, who were unaffected by the floods, refused to move to rehabilitation centres, prompting authorities to provide them with essential supplies.
Following a request by Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao, IAF personnel airdropped food and water to the villages. In Morachapalle, where normalcy returned as the water level receded, the district administration deployed 100 sanitation workers to clear the debris and dead cattle washed up by the floodwater. The situation, however, remains precarious, with heavy rain alerts still in place.
The entire erstwhile Warangal district has been grappling with incessant rains over the past week, leading to the overflowing of major water bodies like Laknavaram, Ramappa, and Pakhal Lakes. Laknavaram Lake in Govidaraopet mandal of Mulugu district surpassed its capacity of 33 feet, while Pakhal Lake and Ramappa Lake have also overflowed.
Two swept away in rivulet
ADILABAD: Two, including an 11-year-old boy, were washed away in flood waters in the Thumpelli rivulet in Asifabad Mandal in Kumrambheem-Asifabad district on Friday. They are R Kaushik, 11, and G Mohan, 40, of Thumpelli village. The mishap occurred when Kaushik, while playing near the swollen rivulet fell into it. Watching his plight, Mohan went to his rescue but he too was washed away. The police and villagers are searching for their bodies.
Zilla Parishad chairperson Kova Laxmi, District Collector Hemant Borkade, special officer Hanumanth Rao, and Superintendent of Police K Suresh Kumar were monitoring the rescue operation. They visited the place where Kaushik and Mohan were swept away in the rivulet. Meanwhile, the travails of the residents of some colonies in Mancherial, ravaged by the recent rains, are continuing.