Hyderabad: A two-hour spell of very heavy rainfall, coupled with thunderstorms and gusty winds, took the city by surprise on Tuesday during the evening peak hour, submerging several key roads and forcing motorists to seek shelter.
Ramachandrapuram recorded the heaviest rainfall, of 69.5 mm, followed by Serilingampally, at 56.8 mm, and Quthbullapur, at 53.3 mm, according to the TS Development and Planning Society report.
The areas of Patancheru, Miyapur, Balanagar, Secunderabad, Moosapet, Gachibowli, Begumpet, Kukatpally, Serilingampally, Malkajgiri, Kapra, Alwal, Quthbullapur, Chandanagar and Madinaguda, located in the northern and western parts of the city, received heavy rainfall, while Rajendranagar, Mehdipatnam, Jubilee Hills, Masab Tank, Tank Bund, Khairatabad, Shaikpet and Tolichowki received moderate rainfall.
Things got so bad that the Director of Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) advised citizens to stay indoors to avoid any untoward incident.
Citizens stuck in traffic took to Twitter to post pictures and videos of heavy rainfall and thunderstorms.
B.V. Prashanth, a commuter, who was riding his bike towards Begumpet, said he was stuck for over an hour due to the strong winds and heavy downpours.
A Twitter user, Kavali Chandrakanth, posted a video of heavy rain at Kukatpally, while another user, Wasal, responded to it with a video of a thunderstorm and lightning in Kukatpally.
User Divya Jha posted a video of the rain she recorded from her car, captioned: “One of the worst seen in recent times in Hyderabad....(Lingampally - Nallagandla area) #HyderabadRains.”
K. Laxmikant, a commuter who was drenched in the downpour near Parade Ground, said, “I haven’t seen such an extreme weather, with rains and storms, in any summer. It was scary and risky to move; so, I took shelter at the Metro station. I had to wait for more than one hour to get back on the road.”
The rains also brought with them traffic jams to the arterial and main roads of Kukatpally, JNTU, Serilingampally, Begumpet, Ameerpet, Khairatabad and Masab Tank, with queues of vehicles waiting at least half an hour to move forward.
K. Santosh, a private employee, said he was held up in traffic for half an hour near Shyamlal Building in Begumpet. “I could not park my bike and move to a shade as I was stuck in the middle of heavy traffic,” he said.
Mohammad Usman of Bilalnagar, a low-lying area in Old City, said the area was inundated and that people were crossing roads at high personal risk.
Heavy rainfall witnessed in various districts of Telangana
Heavy rainfall with thunderstorms, lightning and hailstorms were recorded at Nalgonda, Jangaon, Medchal, Rajanna Siricilla, Karimnagar, Kamareddy, Siddipet, Vikarabad, Mancherial, Rangareddy Adilabad, Nizamabad, Pedapalli, Sangareddy and Siddipet, according to the India Meteorological Department on Tuesday.
Siddipet recorded the highest rainfall, at 79.8 mm, followed by Sangareddy, at 69.5 mm, and Adilabad, at 59.8 mm, according to the TSDPS data.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for the state for the next three days, predicting moderate to heavy rains and thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty winds in most places.
A cyclonic circulation, with a trough from west Vidarbha to south-interior Karnataka, across Marathwada, was cited as the reason for the unexpected and unseasonal rains.
