Cloudburst triggers mayhem, Hyderabad drowns in 2-hour deluge

HYDERABAD: A mammoth cumulonimbus cloudburst over a wide area of Greater Hyderabad triggered a deluge with 13.25cm rain pounding the city in just a two-hour span. At least three people were killed and several areas inundated on Monday evening. In the suburbs, at least four were killed in lightning strike at Narayankhed.

As the mayhem unfolded, several cars were damaged as walls caved in and vehicles washed away with gushing water. At least 50% of city was blacked out after the rains. CM K Chandrashekar Rao has called it as an emergency situation and appealed to the citizens not to step out.



Heavy rain was recorded in Bahadurpura in south Hyderabad and 12.6cm in Rajendranagar, 12 cm in Amberpet, 10.4 cm in Golkonda and rest of Hyderabad particularly south, central and west areas recorded 6-10 cm.

Traffic came to standstill on most roads. While a man was electrocuted at Charminar Murgichowk after a wire snapped, a disabled man and a child were feared crushed under debris of collapsed wall in Banjara Hills Road No.10. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was pressed into service and rescue operations were on till reports last came in.



Met department said that around 4.45pm a severe cumu lonimbus clouds developed over city in 30 minutes. This formed cumulonimbus shelves which in turn merged to form a massive cloud umbrella. Moisture content from Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea supported atmospheric instability in the last lap of monsoon.

IMD Hyderabad director Y K Reddy said, "We predicted thunderstorms. Upper air cyclonic circulation over Rayalaseema and neighbouring areas and upper air trough from Odisha to Kerala across Te langana and Karnataka favoured cumulonimbus cloud formation." Each cloud shelf is as wide as 6-8 km radius and merged to cover the entire city.



GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy told TOI, "Amberpet, Golnaka, Musheerabad, Rajendranagar, Monda Market have been worst hit."

Water was flowing at Cyberabad police commissionerate office at two-and-half foot height.Padma Colony in Nallakunta was also inundated. Water also entered the Nehru zoological park at Miralam Tank.