North Telangana suffered heavy damages after unprecedented rain, particularly in Kamareddy and Medak districts, as police, NDRF and SDRF rescued and evacuated thousands of people. Air Force choppers were deployed to rescue stranded people and the National Highway 44 was badly damaged at least at three places.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy conducted an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Peddapally, Kamareddy and Medak while Union minister of state for home affairs Bandi Sanjay and BRS working president KT Rama Rao toured the areas under water. The BRS also attacked the chief minister alleging that the state’s helicopters have been sent to Bihar for the Congress campaign even when the state was reeling under floods.
Locals claimed that this was the heaviest rain they had witnessed in the past 50 years. According to the government Rajampet in Kamareddy district received 44 cms of rain. A total of 23 locations including 10 in Kamareddy, four in Nirmal, six in Medak and the rest in Nizamabad and Siddipet received more than 23cms of rain.
Revanth conducted an aerial survey of flood hit areas in Peddapalli, Kamareddy and Medak districts along with irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and TPCC chief B Mahesh Kumar Goud to take stock of the situation.
Two helicopters from the Airforce were deployed to rescue villagers stranded in Gambhiraopet Mandal in Rajanna Sircilla district. Seven people who had been trapped near the Upper Manair project for 26 hours were finally evacuated. They had gone to graze their cattle.
Health minister Damodar Rajanarsimha visited the flood affected areas of Ramayampet, one of the worst affected areas. He confirmed that so far one person died in a wall collapse while two people in a car were swept away.
A total of 15 SDRF teams, 5 NDRF teams and about 100 army personnel from TASA unit in Hyderabad were engaged in rescue and relief work in Medak. However, the 103-year-old Nizam era built Pocharam Project withstood the massive inflow of 1,82,000 cusecs, far exceeding its Maximum Flood Discharge (MFD) limit of 70,000 cusecs to the relief of the engineers.
National Highway 44, a major North-South artery has caved in at least three places and hence heavy vehicles were being diverted through alternate routes. In Medak, flood water was flowing over 47 roads, 23 culverts and 15 bridges.
Tanks have been breached at 16 places. Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswar Rao directed his department to promptly prepare detailed reports on crop losses caused due to heavy rains and floods across the state.
Meanwhile, BRS working president KT Rama Rao criticised chief minister A Revanth Reddy for holding the first meeting of the Board of Governors of Telangana Sports Hub discussing Hyderabad’s bid for Olympics in 2036 while the state was reeling under floods.
Drawing a parallel with Roman emperor Nero, Rao said, “While the state is in turmoil due to floods the chief minister is holding review meetings on the Musi beautification project and Olympics.”