Even as incessant rains continue unabated in parts of Telangana for the past week, the IMD (India Meteorological Department) issued a red warning for several districts in the state on Thursday. The IMD has predicted “heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain” at isolated places in 20 districts of Telangana. These districts include Adilabad, Komaram Bheem,
Nizamabad, Nirmal, Kamareddy, Jagtial, Rajanna Sircilla, Mancherial, Peddapalli, Karimnagar, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Mulugu, Warangal (Urban and Rural), Mahabubabad, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam, Nalgonda, Suryapet and Jangaon.
The heavy rains could lead to massive flooding and water logging in low lying areas, along with uprooting of trees and electric poles, interruption in transport for long durations and damage to agricultural lands, the IMD warning said.
In Mulugu district, which has seen heavy flooding in the past few days, a bridge caved in because of heavy flow of water under it. The bridge had been constructed on the ‘Jampanna Vaagu’ stream near Dodla village in Eturnagaram mandal of Mulugu district.
The forecast for Friday looked slightly better, with heavy rain predicted in isolated places in the same 20 districts mentioned earlier. The risk level for Friday was marked as yellow, or low risk.
Over the past week, continuous heavy rains in parts of the state have led to flooding in cities like Warangal. In the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, several villages in East and West Godavari districts were inundated due to the rise in Godavari levels.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had reviewed the flood situation earlier this week. The state Ministers for Health and Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) have also toured Warangal, which was severely affected by the floods.
The rains in the Telugu states were triggered by low pressure in the north-west Bay of Bengal. Many interior villages have lost road connectivity due to flooding.