Gale wreaks havoc in Warangal

A sudden heavy gale followed by downpour threw life out of gear here on Thursday.

The gale brought down many trees and electric poles and one elderly person, D. Ayodhaiah of SR Nagar, was killed when his roof collapsed. Taken aback by the sudden winds, people ran helter skelter. Power supply was stopped for the day due to restoration work of collapsed poles and trees. Houses were damaged in some areas and some residents were injured. A 100-year-old Peepal tree opposite the Gopalaswamy temple in Warangal got completely uprooted and fell on the adjacent house, injuring the residents. Several roads were blocked due to uprooted trees. The police, electricity and municipal staff swung into action, clearing the fallen trees and electric poles across the city. Fallen trees blocked the way to the bus station, putting the commuters in severe troubles. The bus station got completely flooded with rainwater and roof of the Warangal railway station too, was partly damaged.

The sudden downpour proved a curse to farmers who brought maize produce to the Enumamula Market yard, which was drenched. As many as 20,000 maize bags were soaked due to the flash rain at Parkal market yard. Assembly speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary visited the market and took stock of the loss. He assured the farmers that their maize would not go to waste and that officials would buy it. He called up Warangal Rural District Collector and asked her to take up necessary steps.

Warangal Urban District Collector Amrapali Kata and GWMC Commissioner V.P. Goutham convened an emergency meeting. of district officials. asking them to launch rescue operations. Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari called up the District Collectors of erstwhile Warangal and directed them to take measures to revive transportation and electricity. He asked officials to take up measures to buy the damaged crop outputs and procure maize and paddy from farmers through Markfed and Civil Supplies Department.