Rain brings relief and chaos in Andhra pradesh

Visakhapatnam/Vijayawada/Rajahmundry/Nellore: A brief spell of rainfall accompanied by low velocity winds lashed several parts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema districts in the state on Friday.

The rains provided relief to people reeling under the heat in many parts of the state and the temperature has come down by five degrees Celsius to 10 degrees Celsius in various regions.

In Visakhapatnam, the temperate dipped to 35 degrees Celsius from 38 degrees Celsius. Several parts in Krishna district including Vijayawada witnessed moderate rain in the morning and vehicular traffic was disrupted in several areas particularly at One Town as the rainwater got stagnated on the road. Due to gales, branches of trees fell on roads obstructing vehicular movement.

The devotees of Durga temple faced trouble as the vehicles were stranded due to rainfall. Mango orchards were affected due to rain accompanied with gales. A farmer V. Rama Rao hailing from Ravicherla village in Krishna district admitted that the mango crop was affected as the fruits fell from the trees unable to withstand the gales.

Several parts in Godavari districts witnessed rainfall from the wee hours on Friday. At some places the rainfall was accompanied with low velocity gales. Under its influence, day temperature dipped by five to 10 degrees Celsius.

For instance Rajahmundry which witnessed the highest ever day temperature of 43.5 degrees Celcius a few days ago this summer, recorded 33.5 degrees Celsius on Friday. Similar is the situation in many parts of both the districts. However, mango farmers are a bit worried as the gales have caused fruit drop at some places.

In Nellore, moderate rain associated with gales lashed Tirumala town, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, for over one hour in the afternoon. This caused snapping of high-tension power cables near Saraswathi Nilyam. It took nearly four hours for TTD electrical wing to restore the power supply.

Though the sudden downpour caused some inconvenience to the pilgrims, there were no grumblings as the hill shrine, which was reeling under heat wave, suddenly turned cool with a pleasant atmosphere. Drizzling continued till the evening much to the respite of the pilgrims and denizens of the temple town. Moderate rain was recorded in parts of Chittoor district as well as Nellore and Prakasam districts much to the relief of the people.

The officials of Cyclone Warning Centre in Visakhapatnam said Tirumala, Bapatla and Vijayawada received over one cm rainfall. The Met officials predicted that thunderstorms accompanied with squalls are very likely to occur at isolated places of coastal districts till Sunday. The warning was issued to the places in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Vizag, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Prakasam, Nellore and Guntu