Heavy rains lash Telangana; orange alert issued for Friday

Hyderabad: Heavy rains lashed at several places across the State on Thursday disrupting the normal life as a few low lying areas were under sheets of water and traffic movement was affected on many routes.

Among all the places, Pembi in Nirmal recorded the highest rainfall of 64 mm till Thursday evening, followed by 62.3 mm in Alur, Nizamabad and 53.3 mm Almaipet, Sangareddy.

Southwest Monsoon has been active in Telangana with eight districts receiving excess rainfall of over 60 per cent and 24 districts recording excess rainfall of 20 to 59 per cent.

The State’s average rainfall was 14.0 mm against 4.5 mm normal with a deviation 211 per cent. The State average cumulative rainfall from June 1 to September 8 is 916.3 mm against the normal rainfall of 632.9 mm with deviation 45 per cent.

In Hyderabad, the overnight incessant rains continued on Thursday, leaving many areas under sheets of water. Highest rainfall of 30.5 mm was recorded in Balanagar, Kukatpally, followed by 24.3 mm at Kapra and 23.8 mm at Khairathabad.

With Ganesh idol immersion procession scheduled on Friday, pandal organisers had tough times in making arrangements. Devotees, who turned up for darshan at pandals had to take shelter under the flyovers and roadsides.

Much is store as authorities said a low pressure area had formed over West Central & adjoining East Central Bay of Bengal. It is expected to become more marked over Westcentral and adjoining Northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts during next 48 hours.

As a result, the Met department issued orange alert of heavy to very heavy rains in Khammam, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Warangal, Hanamkonda, Jangaon, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Rangareddy and Nagarkurnool districts on Friday.

Heavy rains are expected to occur at several places in the State till Sunday.