Cyclone Michaung batters east Telangana

Hyderabad: Cyclone Michaung wreaked havoc in several mandals of Bhadradri Kothagudem district over the past 24 hours, bringing with it extremely heavy rainfall and disrupting normal life.

Aswaraopeta mandal bore the brunt of the cyclone, recording an alarming 31 cm rainfall from Tuesday 8.30 am to Wednesday 8.30 am, according to the Telangana State Development Planning Society.

Maddukuru in Chandrugonda mandal stood second with 30.8 cm of rainfall. Dammapeta, Annapureddypally, and Kothagudem mandals also experienced significant downpours, ranging from 26 cm to 21.2 cm. In total, 12 mandals faced very heavy rainfall, while nine others experienced heavy rainfall during this period. A very heavy rainfall of 17.4 cm and 16.6 cm was recorded at Gangaram and Sadasivapalem of Sathupalli mandal respectively. Sathupalli received 15.8 cm rain.

Officials at the Kinnerasani project in Paloncha mandal responded by opening two gates to release 8,000 cusecs of excess water downstream. The officials at the Peddavagu project in Gummadavalli village, Aswaraopet mandal, released excess water, resulting in inundation of paddy fields and a halt in coal production in SCCL opencast mines.

The breach in the bund of Perantala tank at Dammapet mandal headquarters made things worse, leading to floods in paddy fields and impacting standing crops in thousands of acres. Vehicular movement was affected in Dammapet,

Agricultural officials were ordered to carry out a survey of the crops damaged by rains and submit detailed reports.

Farmers across Khammam, Wyra, Aswaraopet, Yellandu, Pinapaka, and Palair constituencies suffered immense losses as ready-for-harvest crops, including paddy, cotton, maize, and chilli, were damaged by the heavy rainfall. Affected-farmers are urgently calling on the government to provide compensation and assistance.

The impact of the cyclone extended to coal production in two open-cast mines of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.

The effects of the cyclone were witnessed in Hyderabad with temperature dropping to  23-24 degree Celsius throughout the day.

Meanwhile, India Meteorological Department (IMD) director-general Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra on Wednesday said the deep depression after Cyclone Michaung has weakened and it will weaken further soon. However, rain will continue further for another few hours, he said.

"South Andhra Pradesh is completely clear now, Telangana and Tamil Nadu are also clear, in these places, there won't be any heavy rainfall now due to the cyclone," said Dr Mohapatra added.