Adilabad: Heavy rains lashed several parts of Adilabad, Nirmal and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts from Wednesday night to Thursday morning, hitting normal life and wreaking havoc for farmers. Sirikonda mandal of Adilabad saw over 300 mm of rainfall.
The average rainfall of Adilabad district was measured to be 154.9 mm. Sirikonda mandal received the highest rainfall of 324 mm, followed by Boath mandal which recorded 233 mm of rainfall. While Echoda mandal had 231 mm of rainfall, both Neradigonda and Gudihathnoor mandals witnessed 208 mm and 201 mm of rainfall, respectively. Gadiguda, Narnoor, Indervelli, Adilabad Rural, Mavala, Tamsi, Talamadugu and Utnoor mandals experienced 100 mm to 180 mm of rainfall.
Meanwhile, the average rainfall of Nirmal district was 109.6 mm. Nirmal mandal had the highest rainfall by 212 mm, followed by Sarangapur mandal which saw 164 mm of rainfall. Kuntala, Kaddampeddur, Laxmanachanda, Mamada, Soan, Dilawarpur, Pembi, Khanapur, Nirmal Rural registered over 100 mm of rainfall. The actual rainfall of the district was 678 mm when compared to the normal rainfall of 433 mm from June 1 to July 27, showing an excess of 57 percent.
BR Nagar in Nirmal district centre was inundated, forcing residents to move to safer places. Forest minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy toured flood-hit areas in Nirmal town and assured all support to the victims. He urged the public to be cautious of the floods. He instructed officials to take steps to prevent loss of human life and property.
The average rainfall of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district was 91 mm. Sirpur (U) mandal recorded the highest rainfall of 174 mm. Jainoor, Lingapur, Tiryani, Bejjur, Penchikalpet, Dahegaon, Asifabad and Kerameri mandals saw rainfall between 80 mm and 140 mm. The actual rainfall of the district was 631 mm as against the normal rainfall of 480 mm, posting an excess of 40 percent.
Due to heavy rains, several streams swelled. Connectivity to remote parts of these districts was affected. Culverts and old bridges were washed away. Traffic between Mancherial and Nirmal district and Bhainsa to Basar was suspended following bridges overflowing due to flooding streams. Standing paddy and cotton crops raised in over 1 lakh acres were damaged as per initial estimations of the Agriculture department.